Northeast High students bike to school

NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Approximately twenty Northeast High School students hit the road Wednesday morning extra early, trading in the school bus for bicycles.

It's part of a new program that the school is implementing to encourage the kids to be more active.

"May is National Bike Month so here at Northeast High School we're having Bike to School Day," teacher Sharon Holloman said.

"It was cool, first time I ever rode my bike to school," freshman Josh Jean-Louis said.

Under the watchful eye of several teachers, the kids pumped up their tires. Teachers fixed the bike seats to make sure the ride was comfortable.

"We want to encourage physical activity, get students to be active, and performing physical exercises to help keep them fit, especially at a young age," teacher Steven Novosel said.

The state's mandatory law for all kids under 12 to wear helmets didn't apply to this crowd of high schoolers, but organizers urge kids to get protected anyway. They also explained how to use hand signals among other safety measures.

"Wearing bright colored clothes, being visible, things of that nature," Holloman said.

"If you get hit by a car, nine times out of ten, you go to hospital so you got to stay safe," Jean-Louis said.

Students left Jardel Rec Center and, as a group, headed over to the school; it took a quick twenty minutes, and afterwards, many wanted to keep going.

So when is the next big bike ride? There is nothing scheduled yet but planning is in the works because the school considers this a big success.

The students even got an extra treat at seventh period of water ice and pretzels.