2km. 1.24 miles? Stress fractures? What?

Every student on a residential college campus that's bigger than tiny is going to walk 3 or 4 times that in a day. Middle school students will stress their bodies a few orders of magnitude harder in sports practices (or even light exercise).

Why would I? Humans are built for walking, this is literally what we evolved to do.

4km a day, or later 8km a day is nothing, and has never caused me or anyone else I know – and literally every child here does this – any issues.

Even today, when I’m bored and I know the bus will only come in 30min, I usually just walk 6km home from uni.

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I’m not even sure if your comment isn’t just satire, exaggerating the helicopter-mentality of some northamerican parents.

I've always had problems with my feet and legs, so I'm probably just paranoid about it. No way I could walk that much on a regular basis without surgery.

If you can't walk the equivalent of five lengths around a standard track without stress fractures you have a serious, debilitating disease and should see a doctor immediately.

Isn't a standard track only ~a quarter mile (400m)? With a 40 lb pack, twice a day, plus hills, on young bones, with poor judgment about balance and weight placement, someone's going to get hurt. Stress fractures didn't seem implausible, though I suppose ligament injuries are more likely?

And yes, every specialist I've been to has said all I can do is try to protect my joints until I eventually decide I want surgery.