The morning of Nov. 18, my son,\u00a0a professional skateboarder,\u00a0was teaching a five-year-old how to skateboard at the Robb Field Skateboard Park. However,\u00a0San Diego police officer Gerry Waclawek showed up and kicked all the kids out of the park. \u00a0My understanding is that\u00a0Officer Waclawek kicked the kids out\u00a0because\u00a0they\u00a0weren\u2019t wearing safety equipment. I understand that the officer was just doing his job. But here\u2019s what the law reads: \u00a0According to the state\u2019s\u00a0SB115800 (A) section 831.7, as amended: “Neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable to any person who participates in a hazardous recreation activity …” (skateboarding was added to the list of hazardous recreation activities). \u00a0SD115800 (A) also states “a local public agency that owns or operates skateboard parks shall have the authority to determine if helmets, knee pads, and elbow pads are an appropriate requirement for use by persons at skateboard parks, or specific areas thereof, which are within the local public agency\u2019s jurisdiction.” \u00a0It would seem reasonable to me that, 1). since the city and it\u2019s employees are exempt from lawsuits stemming from injuries at\u00a0city-owned skateparks, and 2.) the city has the authority to determine if safety equipment is a requirement (or not) then\u00a0the city of San Diego\u00a0should post warning signs at the park\u00a0“skateboard at your own risk” and\u00a0let the kids skate.\u00a0Skateparks are made for skateboarding, and just like other sports, there are obvious inherent risks associated with it.\u00a0 \u00a0The officer also\u00a0told my son that he can\u2019t teach skateboarding at the park!\u00a0According to a U.S. Product Safely Commission recommendation, a skatepark is an\u00a0ideal place to learn how to skateboard.\u00a0If a skateboard park is the only legal place to skate, then where\u00a0are kids supposed\u00a0to learn how to skateboard?\u00a0 \u00a0If the city of San Diego insists on enforcing\u00a0safety equipment at\u00a0skateboard parks then I suggest it bring\u00a0back Park and Recreation Department supervision and stop wasting the taxpayers\u2019 money and taking valuable police time away from\u00a0fighting real crime. Besides, I\u2019m sure the police are tired of being playground monitors. \u00a0 Mike Ryan Former Ocean Beach Town Councilman; former\u00a0advisor to the National Skateboard Association; chairman of the Ocean Beach Skate Park Committee<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The morning of Nov. 18, my son,\u00a0a professional skateboarder,\u00a0was teaching a five-year-old how to skateboard at the Robb Field Skateboard Park. However,\u00a0San Diego police officer Gerry Waclawek showed up and kicked all the kids out of the park. \u00a0My understanding is that\u00a0Officer Waclawek kicked the kids out\u00a0because\u00a0they\u00a0weren\u2019t wearing safety equipment. I understand that the officer […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Skatepark safety enforcement misguided","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11593,11552,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-no-images","category-opinion","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}