The Newport Mesa Unified School District has voted to ban e-bikes at all elementary and middle school campuses beginning in the 2027-28 school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tuesday’s decision came after a lengthy debate at the school board meeting, after their vote was initially postponed in March<\/a>. The ban will affect students at all non-high school campuses, while only certain e-bikes will be allowed for high schoolers, district officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The move was met with some kickback from parents who spoke during Tuesday night’s meeting.<\/p>\n “I think it’s unfair, because some parents might not be able to get their kids to school without them,” said one man.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some students also took to the stand, saying that it’s unfair they’re all being lumped into one group.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I ride safely. I follow all traffic laws. I don’t wheelie, show off, or ride recklessly in any way,” said one student. “Despite this, the proposal tonight will punish people like me, who are just trying to get to school.”<\/p>\n High school students who ride e-bikes will be required to have a sticker to park on campus and will have to undergo a district-provided safety course. Their parents will also have to sign a liability waiver that acknowledges they are riding an e-bike to school.<\/p>\n The move makes NMUSD the first Orange County school district to ban e-bikes, which have become a topic of increased debate across Southern California.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last week, an Orange County teenager was arrested<\/a> for allegedly hitting an 81-year-old substitute teacher while riding his e-bike and then fleeing the scene in Lake Forest, according to deputies. The teacher remained in critical condition over the weekend after the crash. In early March, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office charged a man who allegedly helped his 12-year-old son illegally modify his e-bike<\/a>. On Tuesday, they announced that further investigation into the incident revealed that several other students had similarly e-bikes, all of which were illegally modified. They seized more than half a dozen<\/a> of the bikes from the school’s campus.<\/p>\n In nearby Los Angeles County in late 2025, Hermosa Beach residents complained about a series of violent and troublesome incidents connected to a group of juveniles on e-bikes, including an assault that was caught on camera<\/a>, while in Riverside County, the District Attorney’s Office reminded parents that they could be liable<\/a> for their children’s reckless use of e-bikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Newport Mesa Unified School District has voted to ban e-bikes at all elementary and middle school campuses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-279959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279959","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=279959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}