by Kevin Cody
E-bike stickers indicating completion of an e-bike safety course will be required of Hermosa Valley students who wish to park their e-bikes on campus next fall. Students must also have a helmet to park their e-bikes on campus.
Bike helmets for riders under 18 are mandated by the state. But the mandatory e-bike course, which the district will teach next fall, is a district innovation.
Superintendent Jason Johnson described the e-bike course requirement as another step in the school board “chasing after bike safety.” The effort was prompted by the surge in students riding e-bikes when COVID restrictions were lifted, and schools reopened in spring 2021.
Since then, the district has offered bike clinics and classroom education, with support from Hermosa police officers. The district also produced a student directed bike safety video.
Johnson said he recently witnessed students in front of the post office a block from the school riding two to a bike, without helmets. The students were called to the principal’s office the following day, he said.
A Beach Cities Health District survey found 60 to 100 students ride e-bikes to Hermosa Valley, which has approximately 600 fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders.
The e-bike sticker requirement will not apply to Hermosa Vista, and Hermosa View students, Johnson said, because few of their pre-k through fourth grade students ride e-bikes to school. ER
E-bikes greatly outnumbered pedal bikes in the Hermosa Valley School bike corral on Tuesday.
