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Let Your Children Outdoors!!!

It is the nature of a child to want to be physically active. It takes a lot of effort and conditioning to train them to be otherwise. But today, the Daily News reported that only 25% of L.A.'s students passed the California Physical Fitness test.

Here's the quote from the article that really exposes the reason behind these dismal scores:

"Many of our kids cannot go outside and play because it is not safe in their neighborhoods. And with two working parents, there is no time for sports or going to the park," said Leah Perrotti, principal of Langdon Avenue Elementary in North Hills." (emphasis added).

Uh huh. Really? Now let's more closely examine this statement, that North Hills is too dangerous of a neighborhood for kids to dare venture outside. Have a look at this index of crime statistics from North Hills:

http://neighborhoods.realtor.com/CA/Los-angeles/North-hills/478645/Crime-stats


North Hills is rated as having even lower crime than Granada Hills, and despite what the horrorshow that is our local television news would have you believe, our part of town is not exactly the hood.

Here are the North Hills numbers from LALife.com:
Category Yearly Statistics Per Person vs. County Average
Homicide 12 56% lower
Rape 48 27% lower
Robbery 1,391 98% higher
Aggravated Assault 620 50% lower
LALife Crime Index
(Violent Crime Overall)		 21 17% higher













Okay, now just to put things in perspective, let's have a look at Hyde Park, near Inglewood:
Category Yearly Statistics Per Person vs. County Average
Homicide 87 335% higher
Rape 93 95% higher
Robbery 2,771 442% higher
Aggravated Assault 1,377 54% higher
LALife Crime Index
(Violent Crime Overall)		 60 233% higher



The number of children abducted each year in the U.S. is comparable to the number of people struck by lighting each year in the U.S., but sadly, our "If it bleeds, it leads" local news coverage has people believing otherwise -- even elementary school principals, who should know better.

These pathetic physical fitness figures, with 75% of L.A.'s kids failing a basic test, show that the widespread myth that children are safer indoors with the Playstation than they are outside riding a bike or playing ball, even in low crime communities like our own, is damaging to our children's health. Maybe kids kept indoors are safe from the boogeyman today, but will they be safe from obesity, heart attacks and diabetes tomorrow?

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