URGENT SAFETY & INCLUSION UPDATE
⚠️ URGENT SAFETY & INCLUSION UPDATE:
Why We Need Immediate Action on the Bathgate Elementary Playground
We are updating this petition to escalate our call for action from a necessary upgrade to an urgent safety emergency
⚠️ NEW EVIDENCE: Immediate Safety Hazard
We have added video and photographic evidence to this petition showing a critical safety failure: a sharp wood chip completely pierced through the sole of one of our autistic students' shoes.
If these wood chips can puncture solid footwear, they can easily pierce a child’s foot. This playground is currently a high-risk environment for puncture wounds, splinters, and severe infections. We cannot wait for a child to be seriously injured before we act.
🤝 Joint Responsibility: City of Mission Viejo & Capistrano Unified School District
Because this playground is a shared space belonging to both the City of Mission Viejo and the school, we are formally calling on both entities to step up, collaborate immediately, and co-fund this vital infrastructure upgrade. This is a shared community asset, and its safety is a shared civic responsibility.
☀️Sun Exposure & Health Risk: A Call to the American Cancer Society
Our children spend hours on this playground every single week under the intense Southern California sun with zero relief. The lack of a permanent shade structure is a direct health hazard.
According to skin cancer data, childhood sun damage heavily compounds the lifetime risk of developing skin cancer. We are actively reaching out to and inviting the American Cancer Society and local skin cancer prevention advocates to review this petition, support our cause, and help us pressure the city and district to install permanent shade structures immediately. Protecting our children's skin health is a fundamental necessity, not a luxury.
♿ Accessibility & Inclusion: A Call to the Disability and Neurodiversity Community
A playground should be a safe haven for all children, but the current wood chip surfacing actively excludes and endangers vulnerable students. We are calling on the Disability and Neurodiversity Community to stand with us for two critical reasons:
The Hidden Danger of Hypersensitivity & Interoception:A significant number of neurodivergent students attend this school. Many of these children experience unique sensory processing and altered pain or discomfort thresholds (interoception difficulties). A child with low sensory registration might not even feel a sharp wood chip piercing their shoe or skin, or may be unable to quickly communicate the discomfort. This creates a massive, silent safety hazard for a large portion of our student body.
- The Barrier to Mobility:Wood chips degrade quickly, creating uneven, inaccessible terrain that restricts children with mobility challenges or physical differences from playing equally with their peers.
📋 Our Clear Demands:
Removal of the dangerous wood chip surface and installation of a safe, accessible poured-in-place rubber surfacing.
Installation of permanent shade structures** to protect students from dangerous UV exposure.
joint task force formed between the City of Mission Viejo and the Capistrano Unified School District to fast-track this project before the start of the next school year.
Please review the attached video and photo of the punctured shoe. Share this update widely, and let’s get the attention of our city officials, school board, the Cancer Society, and disability advocates. Our kids deserve a safe, inclusive place to play!