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Published on 07/21/1997 All articles from this issue

Skaters: 'Not a bunch of high school dropouts'

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By Mike Granneman and Ryan Duffy

The skate park that opened on July 1 (in Los Altos on Hillview Avenue) has done well.

There have been many people attending it on a daily basis. We also have gone there many times. The park is great, and both skateboarders and Rollerbladers together are grateful to the city for all the work they have put into it.

What we don't understand is that there are actually people trying to shut down the park. For a long time skateboarders have been given a hard time for skating in downtown, or anywhere. Local stores call the cops to chase us out of wherever we may be.

Now that we all have the skate park as our designated area to skate, I don't see how some parents can actually have the nerve to find something else to get on our case about.

For example, there are parents who think that their kids are being given a bad example when there is someone smoking cigarettes in the park, even when the person is old enough to do so.

If a child is this easily influenced, then obviously he is not allowed to watch television, go to the mall, or even be in any public area, much less a skate park.

The thing that bothers us about this whole thing is that parents that are trying to close us down don't like skaters, and if any of them knew that we go to St. Francis High School, and that we are not a bunch of high school dropouts with criminal records, then their ideas would change about us. They would realize that we are normal kids and not the stereotypical "skater punk."

Los Altos residents Granneman, 15, and Duffy, 14, attend St. Francis High School in Mountain View.