EDITORIAL:

When Hunt- ington Beach Union High School board leaders opened a skate park next to the high school they had good reason to do so. The enthusiastic skaters at the time scattered all over the high school campus, wrecking railings and sparking all manner of chaos as they enjoyed their sport.

So community leaders got a great idea — why not give the kids a place to skate without placing a burden on the school’s campus?

And now they’re shutting it down without providing any realistic way to pay for a new park. What will happen to the kids who like to skate along the ocean front? Will they just keep coming back and skating on the campus?

If so, it really makes one wonder why they shut down the skate park when one of the chief complaints about it is the misbehavior of a few bad apples who cat-call and jeer at students, leave beer bottles in their wake and indulge in other assorted hi-jinks.

“The women’s track coach won’t even take them by that park,” Athletic Director Roy Miller said. “Comments are made, and she can’t even use that part of the track.”

Taking away the skate park is supposed to help with that? Maybe if there’s a surge of police and security to keep the kids off campus, but isn’t that a waste of money and time?

It’s understandable that the real estate is needed for the new stadium, but shame on community leaders for not having a plan to replace the skate park. The $75,000 the city is offering, along with forgiving a $50,000 demolition fee, doesn’t come close to the $600,000 needed for a new skate park. City leaders need to do better than that. And quickly. Skating is growing in popularity and they need a safe place to play.

Considering all the concern we have these days about sedentary kids struggling with obesity and diabetes, we should be glad to see them putting down the Xbox controller and getting out of the house.

You might prefer they play Little League, but it doesn’t matter what the grown-ups want. Kids will play the games they want to play and the X games like skating continue to grow in popularity.

Let’s make sure we find them a safe place to play.