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Renee CK

writer, editor

I'm a fun girl who's on a quest to figure it all out. I'm cynical but living the dream- I'm not sure how that happened exactly. Follow along in my blog for fun, mayhem, and merriment. There's never a dull day!...

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Is Bigger Better?

if you're stupid, you're just stupid

I am a bit of an amusement park snob.  I grew up within driving distance of the world’s best amusement park, Cedar Point.  When I moved 12 hours south of home, I found myself with a cheap imitation, Six Flags over Georgia.  Bugs Bunny dances around, Yosemite Sam shoots cartoon blanks at you...yeah, still not amused. 

A couple weeks ago, however, something got me interested in the park.  A 17 year old and his cousin jumped not one, but two fences at the park gaining access to the area below one of the most popular rides in the park.  The 17 year old was then decapitated when the ride dipped low.  You could say he, uh, lost his head. (Thank you, I’ll be here all week. Try the veal!)  There are different stories regarding why he and his cousin were back there.  They were trying to cut in line, they were trying to get a hat, or he was trying to grab his friend’s feet while the friend was on the ride.  Doesn’t matter which story you use, all of them are stupid.

I actually worked for a summer at Cedar Point.  I saw fences like the two this kid jumped, was allowed to go behind some of them, and still didn’t like to. So you can bet dollars to doughnuts that I wasn’t going behind any that said stuff like “high voltage” or were within 10 feet of a coaster’s perimeter.  I thought the ride workers who were the first people on each morning to test the rides were stupid!  But, because for whatever reason the exisiting signs didn’t stop boy genius, Six Flags was forced to increase the size of their signs and change the wording.  I know.  Right?

Since I dove head first into helicopter parents last time, I figure this is as good of time as any to do a twisting 360 into stupid parenting.  Ready?  The parents of the kid are rumored to be suing Six Flags!  No, I’m not kidding.  Like my friend said, Six Flags will most likely settle out of court just to keep it out of the news.  Which is STUPID! If that’s the case, then they need to bring a countersuit for lack of supervision of their child.  I was told by a State of Georgia official that starting at age 9, children can be left alone for up to 2 hours as allowed by their maturity level.  Okay, maybe no teenager should be allowed out in general, but surely if your kids jumps not one but two fences with signs, no matter how small, that warn of danger, where you can clearly see riders decending on you at a high rate of speed, and loses his head, you don’t turn around and wave your finger at the park!  Or maybe Six Flags should bring action against the school system where this kid attended- clearly his reading comprehension skills were lacking. 

When I was studying education, my in-laws who attended the same university for the same program, they wondered why the program takes 5 years instead of the 4 they spent.  The answer, because parents like these will bring lawsuits faster than Flo Jo on the juice for things like using a 1 inch mat instead of 1 1/4 in gym physical education or their baby not passing because s/he was not turning in their homework to make the grade.  In the great state of Michigan and I suspect in many other states as well, teacher candidates are having to get an extra year of legalities of education.  I think the causes for this go back to my helicopter parent blog.  Which then makes me think it may not actually be the child’s fault. If the parent can’t take responsibility for their actions, how are they going to teach their child to?

But, maybe if we just make the signs bigger....

Enjoy!
Renee