While some students drive their cars or get dropped off at school, skateboarding as a mode of transportation is increasing in popularity among Miami Palmetto Senior High students. With the rise of skateboards on campus and a lack of places to store them while going to class, the administration at MPSH decided to put a skate rack in the front of the school to promote inclusivity among all modes of transportation.
The Florida Department of Safety and Motor Vehicles made a grant available to MPSH to promote walking and limit driving to increase students’ abilities to use other modes of transportation. After applying for the grant through the Parent Teacher Student Association, the administration requested skateboard racks due to the growing number of bikes and scooters stacking on top of each other on the bicycle racks.
“You don’t do it to get recognition from the kids, but to let them know [administration] sees a need for this and so we wanted to make it available to you. You don’t set out with the goal of getting validation, but set out with the goal of trying to fix a problem,” Assistant Principal Jesus Tellechea said.
Skateboarders would normally put their boards on top of the filing cabinets in the office for safekeeping, but now, the skate racks give students a safer and more practical choice on where to put them.
“I think [the storage] very important, because a lot of people skate nowadays and it’s a mode of transportation for a lot of kids, and now people who like to skate after school have a place to put their skateboards down,” junior Kymani Gomes said.
Even students who do not skate to school recognize the importance of making space for all forms of transportation, and they appreciate the administration’s efforts to accommodate these needs.
“I think it’s cool, there’s kind of been this stigma that it’s cringey to skate but that’s some people’s form of transportation, especially people downtown, that’s how they get places, so I think it’s cool and it makes it more normalized too. If someone doesn’t have a ride to school, they can put their skateboards on the rack,” senior Giselle Bendek said.
