Fine to ride to school

Re: “Why aren’t children walking to school? Lauren Marchetti discusses the myths and realities forcing kids to view the world from the back seat of a car,” last Sunday Points.
Marchetti quotes a 2004 survey that says distance is the No. 1 reason children don’t walk to school, followed by traffic, weather, then crime. It is now 2010. More crazy people are out there — more child predators, more sex offenders.
Marchetti agrees that we should worry about crime, and we are all horrified when these rare events happen, but “we can’t spend our lives eliminating all activity that includes risk.”
It only takes one horrific event, like the recent one in San Diego involving Chelsea King, to make one realize that we live in a country that does not take sex offenders seriously enough. If we announce that all our kids are going to start walking or riding their bikes to school, can you imagine who will be prowling the streets?
If schools are so keen to get a program going, then how about shortening each class by four minutes per day, and using the extra time to have the kids walk for 30 minutes? In the meantime, there is nothing wrong with kids getting a ride to school.