Students push for idle-free zones at schools
<p>Whitefish Middle School students Jessica Henson and Caroline Dye are working on an education campaign aimed about the health risks and costs of idling vehicles.</p>
Vehicles are sometimes left unattended and idling for 45 minutes or longer in front of Whitefish Middle School. Eighth-grade students Caroline Dye and Jessica Henson say it’s a habit that needs to be broken among some parents waiting to drop off or pick up their children.
As part of a Student Council project, the two have launched the “Turn the key, be idle free” campaign to educate commuters at all of Whitefish’s schools about the health risks and costs associated with idling.
“It can be a really big health issue for people with breathing issues,” said Dye while citing her research about the impact of airborne particulates on children.
In their research, they found data from an air monitoring site at Whitefish High School that shows obvious spikes in carbon dioxide levels in the morning around the time school begins.
“It spikes in the morning as high as 376 ppm,” said Dye. “That’s way over the safe limit.”
One way to cut back on those levels, they say, is to end the practice of letting a vehicle or bus idle while waiting in front of the school.
“It’s scary to know what a diesel engine can do to a child’s lungs,” Dye said.
It’s not just health factors — idling is also wasting a commodity.
“If you leave a car running it’s wasting gas, and that costs money,” adds Henson.
Dye and Henson have complied a presentation about their research that they will present to the Whitefish School Board next month. If given support from the board they will hang some of their 36 “Clean Air Zone” signs around each of the school’s drop-off and pick-up zones. They’ll also send a letter to parents and spread awareness through students.
“It’s a place to start,” said Chris Holt, Whitefish Middle School Student Council advisor. “They’d eventually like to have the whole community be idle-free.”
They have already reached out to some city councilors who have shown support.
Holt says the push to eliminate idling is similar to the seat belt safety campaign of her childhood, or later the push to wear bicycle helmets.
“The girls are creating a positive change in the way people think,” Holt said.