After a five year hiatus, Lexington's Safety City is back in business. The program aims to educate elementary school children about motor, personal, and social media safety.
For almost 20 years, Safety City offered youngsters instruction on a variety of issues. The facility, located at Red Mile Place, shut down in 2009 due to budget constraints. Children from Mary Todd Elementary and local officials gathered to celebrate a new day at Safety City.
Ken Armstrong, with Lexington police, says students from Fayette and surrounding counties will attend Safety City. Armstrong says the curriculum is intentionally flexible. "Obviously, this is a big part, the car safety, because we know the kids really enjoy it and they learn quite a bit. But we talk about seat belt safety, we talk about poison, the dangers associated with poison. We can talk about gun safety, we can talk about internet safety. We can talk about all those things," said Armstrong.
Eastern Kentucky University is playing a sizeable role in the re-launch of Safety City. EKU helped with refurbishing the safety track, complete with small electric cars, traffic lights, and signage. Allen Ault is Dean of EKU's College of Justice and Safety. "We'll have our students up here too, working here, so anything to enhance the education of our kids is what the program of distinction money is all about," said Ault.
University President Michael Benson says the partnership is good for the children, and also for EKU. "Every kid that comes through Safety City will get a little maroon back pack with EKU on it. So, we're saying 'hey, if we can make a positive impression on these third, fourth, fifth graders and they go home and say 'man, mom and dad you won't believe where I went today, this really cool safety city and there's EKU everywhere. I mean, that's a good thing," said Benson.
Officials with Safety City hope to rebuild participation and see 25 to 30 students a day, four days a week.
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