Should We Restrict or Limit Children’s Outside Time?

UPDATE: The City of Davis informed MCD that they will not be on the February 2nd city counsel agenda, it has been postponed. They have not set a date for us to be heard.

Should we limit our children’s outside playtime? And if the Davis City Council allows this, how will this affect public and private schools? What about outdoor activities such as little league or soccer?

A neighbor of Montessori Country Day (MCD), a preschool here in Davis, appears to be trying to see MCD and other childcare centers in the city have restricted noise levels. This issue will be brought up at the February 2nd City Council meeting. Although MCD is specific in this situation, if noise level restrictions are placed on childcare centers in the city, elementary schools could be next. Please come to the City Council meeting in a blue shirt and support our children!!!

See the email below from MCD for more information:

I am sending you this e-mail in hopes of gaining your support. As many of you know, MCD has had a problem over the past several years with our neighbors that are behind the school. They have been complaining because the children, they feel, are too loud. Over the years our neighbors have called in complaints to the police and even had the police come out to take noise level testing at our facility. There has been one neighbor in particular that has called me regularly when we have a crying toddler outside. I often take a new child outside to walk and sooth them and was told to “get that child in the class” because it is bothering her.

This has been going on for a very long time. At one point, I wanted it to just stop, so I tried to compromise with her. She asked me to please leave the children in until 8:45 in the morning and not to take them outside after 5:30. She also asked that we not play next to the fence and to only play with tricycles on the other side of the school. I did agree to do these things, hoping that it would resolve the issue. However, unfortunately, she continued to complain and it went from calls to me to complaints to the Davis City Council.

When this issue first arose, the three neighbors that were concerned about the noise, MCD staff and a city member sat together in an attempt to mediate the situation. Although these neighbors moved into this neighborhood long after MCD was already established, MCD agreed to put up a large sound wall. As you could see this was done in good faith and we believed the dispute was settled. We had hoped that our children could now play outside with no restriction or limitation. We had hoped that our children could now play with their bikes, in the sand box and on the top of the hill that they love so much. But, for one person, this was not enough. To our surprise, the neighbor that is directly behind my class was still bothered by the sounds of happy children. I was shocked when I read in the Davis Enterprise that she went to the city council meeting and disparaged our school, especially after we had believed her concerns had been amicably addressed. It appears now that her intent is to see MCD and other childcare centers in the city have restricted noise levels.

Should we limit our children to quiet voices outside, should we tell our children that they can’t play with the bikes because they make too much noise and should we tell them that playing outside is a quiet part of their day? This makes me very sad. We all had the opportunity to run, jump, chase and shout when we were children; why should we take that from our children?

I am asking you as the parent of our wonderful healthy children to fight with me for the rights of our children. For the teachers that want to give the children of this town the right to play outside without restriction or limitation. There is going to be a Davis city council meeting on February 2nd at 6:30 and we are hoping to have all of our parents attend in support of the children, teachers and the school. We would like to have every parent there with the same color shirt (blue) on to show the city council members that this will affect every parent and child in Davis. They need to know that if they limit the sounds of our children in their child care centers, they will be setting a precedence that could affect our public schools, parks and even perhaps our homes. Please come and support us. As we would like to make it easier for you to do so, we will be having childcare available for your children and we will serve pizza for dinner. The MCD staff will care for the children at MCD. Please RSVP for child care so that we can have enough staff and pizza for whoever needs it. Please support usJ

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. Additionally, consider writing a letter or email stating your concerns and thoughts to one or all of the Davis City Council members (contact info below).

Thank you in advance,

Debbie Robertson and John Hillis

Davis City Council Members