School restricts e-scooters on trips and urges parents to act

Gug School near Aalborg has introduced rules restricting students’ use of electric scooters, DR reports, after police warned that more children and young people are riding them at excessive speeds.

Students are no longer allowed to use electric scooters when going on school trips, headteacher Rikke Høg Zimmer says. The school has told families through Aula, a school communication platform, that students should use bicycles instead when leaving the school.

“They can go very fast, it is unsafe to ride them, and you must be 15 years old,” Zimmer says.

The school leadership is also urging parents to discuss scooter rules and safety with their children. It hopes the initiative will prevent dangerous situations and accidents.

Jacob Bæhr, a ninth-grade student, sometimes rides his electric scooter to school when he is in a hurry.

“Sometimes I cannot do without taking the electric scooter to school. If I am in a hurry, it is faster,” he says.

Bæhr accepts the ban on using scooters for trips and says his own scooter can only reach the permitted speed of 20 kilometres per hour.

As part of a strengthened effort targeting electric scooters, North Jutland Police regularly carry out checks at schools. Police have also visited Gug School, says Hjalte Helbo Heines, a police commissioner with the traffic operations unit.

“We remind them of the risks of riding scooters at high speed, with small wheels, a low centre of gravity and poor manoeuvrability,” he says.