The Editor,
As longtime residents of Coquitlam and parents to two young children, we are quite concerned with the city's Glen Park project.
We have one child attending Glen elementary school and another who will be attending kindergarten in September. Although I think it is wonderful that the city has plans to develop/improve the green area behind the school, I wonder what it is thinking by placing an off-leash dog area directly behind the school fence.
As parents to a child who is terrified of any dog, it scares us thinking about her playing on the playground with dogs of all breeds and sizes directly behind the fence.
Because we live close to Lafarge Lake, we frequently use the park during the spring and summer. Last weekend, as we enjoyed the beautiful weather and spring-like conditions in the park, we noticed a large number of off-leash dogs. Although we don't currently have a family dog, we do advocate having some sort of off-leash park in the city. We would much rather that the city has an off-leash park than see people allow their dogs to run off-leash in every public park in the city.
But we do not advocate having such a park directly behind an elementary school, with hundreds of small children playing on the playground. There are too many dogs in this city that are deemed "vicious" breeds. What if one of those dogs jumped the fence and attacked a small child? Is that not an accident waiting to happen?
Our daughter is so terrified of dogs that she runs the opposite way when she sees any dog. She is so terrified that if she saw dogs behind the fence, she wouldn't even venture out onto the playground.
School is meant to be a place of learning as well as a place of play. Shouldn't every child have the opportunity to play on the playground and shouldn't every parent know that they can send their child to school and they will be safe on school grounds?
The city should go ahead and make its plans to improve the green area and make that area enjoyable for all residents of this city but please rethink the decision to place an off-leash dog area directly behind the school fence. Please keep our children safe.
Diego and Kathleen Epherre, Coquitlam
