Sven’s Summertime Safety: Not too cool for school Published Aug. 17, 2011 By Tech. Sgt. Dave Watnemoe 319th Air Base Wing Safety Office GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- As much as it pains me to say it, summer is almost over (I could tell by the Halloween candy in the commissary). And with that comes a little good news and a little more bad. The good news is that you will save some money on child care expenses; the bad news is that all the money you save will go towards school clothes and supplies. Some more bad news is you get to help your sixth-grader do their algebra homework and then try to explain to your child the reason you cannot help them is because you didn't have math like this when you were young. And even worse than that, snow will be here sooner than later. With only 38 days until the first official day of autumn, and eight days until the first day of school, we need to start preparing ourselves for another wonderful school year. We have had all summer to forget about the 15 MPH speed limit in the school zones and how busy those areas are in the morning and afternoons. Like I said in an earlier article, children are like little ninjas. You will be driving past the school and all of a sudden a mini-van door slides open and BAM!, three kids pop out into the middle of the street, running as fast as they can towards the school, forcing you to smash your foot and brake pedal through the floor to avoid flattening them all. And of course while it is still warm enough you will have kids on bikes, scooters, rollerblades, skateboards and who knows what else, taking them in and out of traffic and further testing your driving skills and patience. Soon they will have the cover of darkness on their side, the sun will be coming up later and setting a little sooner so it might be a good idea to sneak a piece of reflective tape onto their backpacks in order to help keep them visible. Speaking of backpacks, it's a good idea to look in your child's backpack every now and then just to see what they're bringing to school. You don't want to be the surprised parent getting the call about little Johnny bringing his hot wheels collection or his father's training nun-chucks to show his friends. There are a lot of things kids might think are cool that have no place in school or on school grounds. As the seasons change and the leaves begin to fall, let's not forget that there might be two ninjas hiding under that pile of leaves just waiting to test your reaction time.