{"id":156064,"date":"2026-01-30T04:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T04:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/156064\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T04:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T04:33:12","slug":"as-more-kids-ride-dangerous-e-bikes-parents-demand-tighter-rules-schools-raise-alarms-long-beach-post-news-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/156064\/","title":{"rendered":"As more kids ride dangerous e-bikes, parents demand tighter rules, schools raise alarms \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, Kimberley Pierce-Lynne\u2019s nine-year-old son met up with several friends to ride bicycles and scooters around Belmont Shore \u2014 his first outing without parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin five minutes, he called me hysterically crying,\u201d Pierce-Lynne said. A group of about 10 middle schoolers riding electric bikes had chased Pierce-Lynne\u2019s son and his friends, shooting them with gel pellets that left welts on their backs and faces, parents said.<\/p>\n

Pierce-Lynne hopped in her car and found the middle schoolers, some riding dirt bikes without helmets and \u201cspeeding around the neighborhood,\u201d she said. It\u2019s a common sight for Pierce-Lynne and other parents, and a problem that city officials and schools are attempting to address. But some parents want swifter action and stronger enforcement.<\/p>\n

E-bikes present safety concerns for all Long Beach residents, but for children, the dangers are especially great. The city has received increasing complaints of \u201cyoung and inexperienced riders operating high-speed e-bikes without helmets or training,\u201d according to a memo from the city manager addressed to the City Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Across the state, youth injury rates due to e-bikes are increasing, the memo said. In response, some California communities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Torrance, are establishing helmets and safety standards, creating no-ride zones and educating residents. Long Beach has also proposed new rules<\/a> to regulate the vehicles.<\/p>\n

\"\"Two students ride a motorized vehicle after reportedly targeting a group of elementary schoolers with gel pellets in Belmont Shore on Sunday. Photo provided by a neighbor.<\/p>\n

California law classifies e-bikes by top speed, pedal assist and throttle. Under state law, anyone can ride classes 1 and 2, which have a top speed of 20 miles per hour, though riders under 18 must wear helmets. To use class 3 e-bikes, the most powerful e-bikes, which can go as fast as 28 miles per hour, riders must be at least 16 years old.<\/p>\n

Some other high-powered vehicles, such as electric motorcycles, or e-motos, and dirt bikes, can go even faster and require licenses. And children are riding all of them.<\/p>\n

Photos reviewed by the Long Beach Post show the middle schoolers who targeted Pierce-Lynne\u2019s son appeared to be violating many rules: riding e-motos underage without helmets \u2014 sometimes two to a bike. Multiple parents said in interviews that these students went to Rogers Middle School.<\/p>\n

Travis Moran, a history teacher at Rogers, opens the bike racks for students every day after school and sees \u201call the new toys that come in,\u201d including illegal e-bikes and electric motorcycles, which have increased in number, he said.<\/p>\n

On the Rogers campus, Moran said he has seen students riding these vehicles the wrong way, while distracted and without helmets, and he elevated the concerns to the principal. At the end of last semester, Long Beach police, Public Works and the Health Department\u2019s \u201cWalk and Roll\u201d team came to the Rogers campus to educate students on e-bike safety.<\/p>\n

These groups have been focusing on middle schools \u2014 including Stanford and Franklin, with future programming planned at Hamilton \u2014 because of data showing middle schoolers are riding illegal vehicles and because so many requests are coming from middle school PTAs and principals, said Biana Ruiz, who oversees the Walk and Roll program.<\/p>\n

\u201cYouth are more likely to be impacted by bike and ped[estrian] injuries,\u201d Ruiz said. School-based programming is a way to prevent accidents before they happen, she said. Her team gives out reflective gear to students, explains the risks of riding at high speeds and shares resources on which vehicles are allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important that we educate the kids,\u201d said Willie Walker, the city\u2019s parking and mobility officer. \u201cBut it\u2019s not the kids purchasing the bikes, it\u2019s really the parents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Long Beach Unified said that at Rogers, several e-bikes and e-motos were flagged as illegal, and the students who owned them were sent home with notices for their parents. The district declined to make the Rogers principal, Renny Chu, available for an interview to answer additional questions. Parents who spoke with the Post said Chu has been responsive to the problem, though the school\u2019s authority is limited, especially when incidents like Sunday\u2019s occur off campus and on the weekend.<\/p>\n

In that case, Pierce-Lynne\u2019s friend called 911, and police arrived at the scene, but Pierce-Lynne said \u201cthe police aren\u2019t helping us with this very much,\u201d and she knows the situation could have been worse \u201chad it been an eye or in the mouth\u201d rather than the back, where her son was shot.<\/p>\n

Some parents want more action. Misty Wagner and her husband, parents of a child shot with gel pellets on Sunday, were spurred to start a petition<\/a> to require driver\u2019s licenses for all motorized vehicles, which would help kids \u201cbetter understand the traffic laws and the expectations of riding something motorized.\u201d Since she started the petition on Monday, she has received over 1,000 signatures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Sunday, Kimberley Pierce-Lynne\u2019s nine-year-old son met up with several friends to ride bicycles and scooters around Belmont…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-156064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}