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Parents outraged after St. Johns Co. Schools takes away bus, students to walk 2 miles

"No one would expect for a second that a kindergartner would go out that gate by themselves and walk to school," a spokesperson with the school district responded. "I mean a parent's responsibility comes to play in what they're comfortable with."

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. - Some St. John's County parents living in the St. Johns Forest neighborhood are struggling with a tough situation: hundreds of students, some as young as kindergarten, now have to find their own transportation or walk to school. The bus to Liberty Pines Academy that has serviced them for years will no longer pick them up.

The change comes because the school district now considers their part of their neighborhood within the two-mile radius of the school, thanks to a newly built sidewalk that came with the 9B construction.

Parents say the walk is too treacherous for students this young.

"My 5-year-old can barely pay attention for the three minutes we were standing here waiting for you guys to get over here, much less walk a route with 45, 55 mile an hour traffic going by," said parent Ryan Johnson.

Johnson says he also worries about the lack of supervision.

"I mean, I'd worry about my kids playing around, my 7-year-old pushing my 5-year-old into traffic," Johnson said.

Johnson says aside from the sidewalk being close to the road, heat concerns and lack of supervision, the gate that allows kids to get to the school quickly is locked by an access key the kids aren't allowed to have.

"You're using a gate that's not accessible to children, they can't access the gate," Johnson said.

Johnson says the only gate that the children could pass in and out freely and safely without an access key is over 2 miles away from the school.

Al Pantano with the St. John's County School District says their gate access isn't the school's responsibility.

"The management of the pedestrian gate is purely a matter for the community to decide and manage," Pantano says.

Pantano says the new sidewalks provided by the 9B construction made this school route possible, and that they do believe it's safe.

"Absolutely beautiful sidewalk, nine feet wide, huge offset from the roadway, highway lighting," Pantano said. "That part is very well built."

As for the younger ones walking alone, Pantano says he would hope a parent wouldn't let that happen.

"No one would expect for a second that a kindergartner would go out that gate by themselves and walk to school," Pantano says. "I mean a parent's responsibility comes to play in what they're comfortable with."

"I suppose they can just ask people to just quit their jobs and not go to work to get their kids to and from school," Johnson said. "I don't think that's good for the community."

Parents tell us they are considering taking legal action.

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