POULSBO — SUVs equipped with MP3s, more and more cars on Kitsap county’s roads and streets, cell phone distractions, high-speed attraction and the ever-present danger of drinking and driving … today, highways and byways can be as brutal as a battlefield.
Yet some North Kitsap kids aren’t even getting a full course of driver’s education before getting behind the wheel. In Washington state, at the age of 18, residents no longer need to have a Traffic Safety Education certificate to get a driver’s license.
“I think that the public would be absolutely shocked at how many people there are driving out there without a driver’s license … it’s incredible,” said Nora Sizemore, NK activist and co-founder of the North Kitsap Kyle Sizemore Memorial Scholarship.
In 2005, her son Kyle, then 17 and a junior at North Kitsap High School, died from injuries sustained in a collision on Hansville Road. Now, Nora is leading a charge to curtail dangerous driving circumstances by helping teens pay for driver education.
The scholarship, which is set up through the North Kitsap Education Foundation, will help North Kitsap teens based on financial need. Applications will be taken and scholarships will be awarded each month starting in January 2007.
North Kitsap High School’s TSE course is a $300, self-supported, 8-week course that spans 35 hours of classroom time, five hours of driving time and five to six hours of observation time for students. Other private commercial driving schools cost between $250 and $450 and have similar standards, state Department of Licensing program manager Tanna Cochran said.
The money collected at North goes into sustaining the program to pay for things like classroom materials, teachers, fuel and driving instructor time, said NKHS TSE coordinator Paul Christensen.
However, for too many families, he said, the cost is too exorbitant.
“I do know that is a factor, there’s no question, every quarter I have calls from parents and students who say they really want to take it but can’t afford it,” Christensen said. “I’m afraid, in some of those situations, that kids just aren’t going to be able to drive at least until they are 18.”
However, increasing traffic matched with more and more forms of distraction for drivers can create a road hazard powder keg, DOL spokesman Brad Benfield said.
Education and practice are the means to defuse that bombshell.
“I think (TSE) should be a requirement for all drivers. I don’t care how old you are, it should be required to have a license,” Sizemore said. “I wish it were free. I wish it was like in the old days when it was a part of the (school) curriculum, but it isn’t anymore.”
With that thought in mind, she decided to establish the scholarship fund.
In order to apply students must have a grade point average of 2.5 or above, compose an essay related to safe driving practices or the effects of a lack thereof and collect two letters of recommendation outside of their family.
Applications and guidelines can be found online at www.nkef.org or at the NKHS counseling office beginning in 2007. Scholarships should be awarded on a monthly basis, Sizemore said.
The next session of driver’s education will begin in February, 2007, Christensen noted. Students can get an application or more information Online at www.nksd.wednet.edu or at their school’s front office.
