wrote:

In spite of many bicycles in the locked compound, a traffic jam of
SUV's and trucks deliver and retrieve what appears to be the majority
of seventh to ninth graders to David Starr Jordan middle school. What
will it take to bring communities back together so that parents do not
fear for their children's safety on the streets of their home town.

It's a self perpetuating process, since it's because of the traffic jam
of SUV's and minivans that parents fear for their children's safety.

One thing it will take is traffic calming designed to make it more
difficult for vehicles to deliver the child directly to the entrance of
the school. This is unlikely to happen, as the school boards and cities
have no interest in doing anything about the problem.

Another problem is the amount of stuff the kids take back and forth to
school. Probably when you were in junior high school you had a locker.
Lockers are now rare in junior high schools so you have to take
everything back and forth to school every day. I.e., I see a kid riding
his bicycle to the middle school carrying his trombone every day on a
specially constructed rear rack. Bravo for him, but if the school had
the large instruments to play at school, he wouldn't have to do this.