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Unsupervised Children <br /> Closure of Stardust lane has created a non-designated school "pick up area" <br /> where children walk off of school property to to be picked up by car on Stardust, <br /> instead of parents driving in the sanctioned car pick up line and picking their child <br /> up from the supervised area at Kahakai Elementary. To be clear, this is not a <br /> school-sanctioned option of walking home, bussing, or being picked up, it is <br /> cheating the system in order to cut in line with a car. At the time school gets out, <br /> there are often 5-10 "parent" cars parked on Stardust as they "skip the line". This <br /> results in children walking out of the view of school staff and supervision, into an <br /> unattended public street to wait to get into a car. This situation creates a <br /> needless risk of predation and kidnapping- please don't wait to secure the <br /> safety of these keiki. <br /> Potential Solution <br /> The safest and simplest solution would be to remove the entire gate. <br /> One argument that Kahakai Elementary staff have made for keeping the gate closed is <br /> that traffic used to drive too fast through that gate during pickup times, and that they <br /> don't have the manpower to open and shut the gate. However, the school is already <br /> currently placing cones and a traffic director at the end of Kahakai Access Road at <br /> Royal Poinciana during pick-up times, and locking and unlocking the front entry gate of <br /> the school daily, less than 10 feet away from the other gate. Additionally, students who <br /> have been authorized to walk home on their own already navigate traffic on streets <br /> other than Kahakai Access road, and the school is not responsible for traffic <br /> interventions on any public streets. <br /> If the gate on Stardust were removed, there is no reason that the school could not do <br /> the exact same thing at that intersection as they currently do on Royal Poinciana. The <br /> traffic cones could be placed by the same staff with the same cart at the same time they <br /> are already doing so, 600 feet away. Community parents have volunteered for traffic <br /> safety duty at this gate as well, there need not be additional staff cost to the school. <br /> Kahakai Elementary needs to be responsible for restoring normal traffic flow outside of <br /> those times, not force a permanent traffic revision without oversight or input. <br /> Past Context <br />