A Healthier Destination

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  Wai'anae, Hawai'i
  November 28th, 2013
  
  According to the center for disease control, obesity has doubled in teens and tripled in adolescents in the past thirty years. This growing number of overweight youth in the United States indicates that today’s youth are not getting the exercise they need.
  
  Waianae High School’s (WHS) students are required to take one semester of physical education in the four years they attend. This is nowhere near the recommended amount of physical activity for teens. Students can get added exercise by walking or biking to campus. The majority of the WHS community live within a five to 10 mile radius of the school. Making biking a healthier and more environmentally friendly alternative to the bus or being dropped of. “I bike because it helps me stay healthy and I don’t want to pollute the atmosphere”, said English teacher Lawrence Dreyfuss.
  
  Biking as a transportation activity is being denied to WHS students by the simple fact that they can’t securely park a bike at school. "They should have racks to encourage kids to ride bikes", said Daniel Bruening Plop.
  
  Biking to school could be faster and safer than walking because of how much quicker you could get to your destination. “I get here pretty fast and safely using my bike”, said AP english teacher Mr. Dreyfuss.
  
  Mr. Dreyfuss is an AP teacher that has had a couple of his students in the past have issues with Waianae not having bike racks. "One of my students had to put his bike in my class because he thought that it was gonna get stolen", said Dreyfuss. Daniel is a WHS Senior that rides his bike to school and chains it to the tree in the parking lot. This lack of a secure space actually prevents some students from using a bike even when they can. "I would bike but there are no bike racks”, said Junior Damien Dean.
  
  “There are many benefits to having bike racks but we just don’t have the resources to obtain it”, said Shane Nakamura.
  
  Shane is the counselor for the WHS Searider Productions academy. Shane believes that there are many reasons we should have bike racks but he also knows that there is no budget at WHS to pay for the cost of bike racks. “It all comes down to the money”, said Shane.
  
  Transportation may be a problem for students and that is why Shane feels that there should be bike racks to not only compensate those who are willing to ride but maybe to also get some other people to start riding their bikes.
  
  Biking could provide the exercise help students need to be more physically fit by having them be more active everyday when they have to ride their bike home rather than having to catch the bus or drive. Also this combined with Waianae’s selection of healthy food could benefit the students in a healthy way. By Waianae adding bike racks it could encourage students to be more healthy and ride bikes. “ I would ride if there were bike racks because thats way better than catching the bus or walking”, said Dean.
  
  For students at WHS there is no way to guarantee that they get the exercise they need but bike racks may create the opportunity they need to start living a healthier life.

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Looking Back

In this project I learned that bike racks are needed just to give kids that healthy option so that they can chose weather or not they do it. 

Jonathan Evangelista, Reporter

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It opened my eyes on how much efficient bike riding is. I think everyone should look at it differently and how it is helping our planet.

Jason Jacobs, Photographer

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