WASHINGTON — Despite a warning that sledding on the Capitol grounds is banned, families turned up in protest Thursday afternoon with sleds in hand. Calling it a sled-in, about a dozen neighborhood parents used the moment stand up to what they say is a silly rule. “It’s rare it snows enough in D.C. to sled and this is the only hill on Capitol Hill,” says Lindsay Medsker who posted the petition on Change.org, asking other parents to join in. After hearing Capitol Police denied Del. Eleanor Holmes-Norton’s request for a waiver so that kids could sled on Capitol Hill, Medsker says she is glad to see police are not enforcing the ban. “I just think it’s a silly rule. Living in D.C. we make a lot of sacrifices in the name of national security and many of them I understand, but sledding is not a national security issue,” she says. Capitol Police did approach parents who showed up for the sled-in at 1 p.m. telling them they could not sled there, but did not forcibly remove anyone, including children from the hill. “I don’t think the Capitol Police’s hearts were really in it either. They’re just doing what somebody inside a nice warm office says,” says parent Jason Petty. Capitol Police cite a safety issue as the reason for the ban. On the hill, an officer told organizer Tim Krepp that sprinklers along the lawn could cause injury to kids who are sledding. “It’s important to do,” says 9-year-old Elizabeth Petty sitting in a bright red sled. “We should have the right to sled.” Earlier, Holmes-Norton spoke on WTOP about her frustration with the Capitol Police’s regulation. “All the sudden, they start enforcing them without giving any reason. They did say they are reviewing it. The problem is the 30 days (they have to decide) aren’t up and we could be at the end of the snow season by then,” she says. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who had earlier requested Capitol police to lift the ban, tweeted her thanks to police:
To view this content from @EleanorNorton on X, click here.
Picking up the cause, a group also began a change.org petition this week urging the Sergeant at Arms and the U.S. Capitol Police to lift the sledding ban. The group decided to hold a “sled-in” Thursday to make their point.
