Shortage of crossing guards has Seattle students dodging traffic
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SEATTLE -- From one end of Seattle to the other, children are being forced to dodge traffic while crossing busy intersections, and it's all because the school district hasn't hired enough crossing guards.
The KOMO Problem Solvers discovered nearly two dozen intersections near schools with no crossing guards to guide kids.
One intersection outside of a West Seattle school has no stop sign and only a yield sign for north/south drivers. KOMO cameras caught dozens of kids crossing by themselves in all directions.
Local parents are now trying to help their kids across the intersections, but sometimes the drivers don't cooperate.
"They speed through here and then nobody stops, nobody sees kids," said parent Ashley Roos.
Like other parents across the city, Roos wants to make sure local children are safe.
"The school needs to get some crossing guards here," she said. "This is a very busy street. It's dangerous for the kids."
Acting on a tip, the Problem Solvers found 21 critical intersections in the Seattle School District that are currently without crossing guards because the district hasn't filled the positions.
"What I'm told is that the north end is a very tough spot to find people who are willing to work two hours a day, early in the morning, late in the afternoon." said Teresa Wippel of Seattle Public Schools.
But the list of schools still in need of crossing guards extends well beyond the north end. At least 13 schools are in need of guards, and Stevens Elementary in Capitol Hill needs four.
Wippel said the district was hampered by a hiring freeze.
"We were able to get the freeze lifted to be able to fill those positions, but what it meant is that we were a little behind in trying to fill some of those spots," she said.
Parents think the district should have made it a priority to hire crossing guards before school started.
"It seems like it should be a position that needs to be filled," said parent Eric Schwartz.
Many also wonder why the district doesn't assign staff or substitute teachers as temporary guards until permanent ones are hired.
"They have to be trained," Wippel said. "It's a liability issue if we just send anybody out there."
The district doesn't advertise for crossing guards, and people who want the job have to apply at district headquarters.
The schools and areas in need of crossing guards are: BF Day, Greenwood, Viewlands, John Stanford, McDonald, Stevens, McGilvra, Catharine Blaine, Hawthorne, John Muir, Bailey Gatzert, T Marshall and Highland Park.
The KOMO Problem Solvers discovered nearly two dozen intersections near schools with no crossing guards to guide kids.
One intersection outside of a West Seattle school has no stop sign and only a yield sign for north/south drivers. KOMO cameras caught dozens of kids crossing by themselves in all directions.
Local parents are now trying to help their kids across the intersections, but sometimes the drivers don't cooperate.
"They speed through here and then nobody stops, nobody sees kids," said parent Ashley Roos.
Like other parents across the city, Roos wants to make sure local children are safe.
"The school needs to get some crossing guards here," she said. "This is a very busy street. It's dangerous for the kids."
Acting on a tip, the Problem Solvers found 21 critical intersections in the Seattle School District that are currently without crossing guards because the district hasn't filled the positions.
"What I'm told is that the north end is a very tough spot to find people who are willing to work two hours a day, early in the morning, late in the afternoon." said Teresa Wippel of Seattle Public Schools.
But the list of schools still in need of crossing guards extends well beyond the north end. At least 13 schools are in need of guards, and Stevens Elementary in Capitol Hill needs four.
Wippel said the district was hampered by a hiring freeze.
"We were able to get the freeze lifted to be able to fill those positions, but what it meant is that we were a little behind in trying to fill some of those spots," she said.
Parents think the district should have made it a priority to hire crossing guards before school started.
"It seems like it should be a position that needs to be filled," said parent Eric Schwartz.
Many also wonder why the district doesn't assign staff or substitute teachers as temporary guards until permanent ones are hired.
"They have to be trained," Wippel said. "It's a liability issue if we just send anybody out there."
The district doesn't advertise for crossing guards, and people who want the job have to apply at district headquarters.
The schools and areas in need of crossing guards are: BF Day, Greenwood, Viewlands, John Stanford, McDonald, Stevens, McGilvra, Catharine Blaine, Hawthorne, John Muir, Bailey Gatzert, T Marshall and Highland Park.
I guess you could look at it that way, but many children have had their lives saved from baboons such as yourself driving like a maniac and being very careless behind the wheel.
It's a money issue and not a stupid issue. It is and was a promise made by our government and state to take care of the people for the people by the people. That was their plight when fthey begged for votes! NOW OWN UP TO IT AND STOPP BEING S BUNCH OF TIGHT AS$^&*()*&^%$%SSES
Now that that this story is out to the public, parents if your child is hit during, before or after school where you know there should have been an adult crossing the children, ramp up your lawyers....The state of Washington is fully aware of this severe hazard to our children. They made the cuts and thought "who cares, let the kids cross main intersections themselves"
Go GET RICH!!! It is only no more then fair!!!
Must the government really babysit us to this extent? Should the government escort us to the bathroom too?
Perhaps some of the parents should step up and make sure the kids get across safely until this is resolved. If it were my child I certainly wouldn't mind seeing to it that they got across these streets safely. Perhaps several parents could take turns. One more thing that someone has managed to turn into a major problem where there didn't used to be one.Â
I was a crossing guard for a couple of months. The school I wanted was available, but they sent me to one across town. For $12 an hour it didn't pay for the fuel to drive there twice a day. But parents could do it, you do have to take a test, get finger printed and background check. Seems to me that parents that are coming and going with their kids anyway could do this. Make at least a little extra money. Oh and it took 3 months to get my pay from them. The SSD has MANY problems.
Crossing the street at intersections throughout the city is extremely dangerous for pedestrians of all ages: The able bodied, seniors, the disabled, adult parents/grandparents/caregivers/preschool teachers w/ babies, toddlers & young kids; school students: All are at grave risk of being struck by the huge number of drivers who are pulling up to intersections and driving out, on & over the white lines for pedestrians (which forces the pedestrians to walk around them and into traffic); they're running red lights throughout the city and very few stop at stop signs at all. Check out this important pro-active Facebook page. To date two city council members support the installation of ALL CROSS/ALL WALK SIGNAL LIGHT INTERSECTIONS (with large, easily-readable type NO TURN ON RED SIGNS at the intersections) but the City's Director of Transportation is strongly opposed. His exclusive focus and interest: Vehicular traffic flow.Â
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And, in addition to children volunteers, put cameras at crosswalks and send photo tickets for $500 to every idiot who doesn't stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, those selfish ignorant ba*tards really pi** me off!!! Â
Why do you have to hire crossing guards? Here's an idea. Have the kids volunteer to be crossing guards! That's what we have here in Renton, and we've had it for years! They had them when I was in Benson Hill and my younger niece always volunteered to be crossing guard as well! It's a great opportunity to get kids involved!
Sounds like more of a crappy driver problem than a shortage of crossing guards, but no surprise coming from Seattle. Millions of kids manage the trek to school in thousands of cities throughout the nation without assistance, go figure.
Hiring freeze? Surely one of the levys passed year after year can cover this rather than the numerous boondoggles. We are paying 300 a month for our child to go to a public school (Kindergarten) because the school chose to spend their Title 1 funding elsewhere. Perhaps a portion of this? Â As far as navigating through traffic as a pedestrian and a motorist, in addition to usual speeding in school zones or oblivion to crosswalks, the newer dangers seem to be primarily the ugly parking strip plantings by both the city and homeowners that limit visibility and those driving with burkas, limiting side to side/peripheral vision/spatial awareness. Speaking from personal experience. Â Â
 @thatsmithgirl:Â
Is your child a FULL day kindie or a HALF day?
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The state only funds HALF day - so if you choose to enroll your child in a fuul day kindie program, you end up paying the difference.
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It's not a school "boondogle" or "wastoing Title 1 funding elsewhere" - it's that the state has never fully funded all day kindergarten (or the rest of education, for that matter).
".... The district doesn't advertise for crossing guards, and people who want the job have to apply at district headquarters ...."
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So, the district NEEDS nearly 2 donzen crossing guards, yetg the do not ADVERTISE to get people to apply? And if you DO want to apply you have to head down to 4th & Lander to school headquarters to apply?
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ASININE!
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How about instead they advertise the positions, incluing hours & pay rate, and then let people apply over the internet as almost every other employer does these days.
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I bet they would have all the crossing guards they need in a couple of weeks.
 @LocalLady They do advertise them at the schools. I've gotten emails about it from my daughter's school, which is on the list above. It's not as good as advertising outside, but it's a little something.Â
I can't speak for the other schools, but Highland Park Elementary does have a team of 5th grade students who do cross walk duty. Â In addition the one crossing guard on the corner of 9th & Trenton, there is an additional guard on duty at 16th & Trenton. Â I'm really not sure why this was not reported.
When I was in the 5th and 6th grade about 6 other kids and I were the crossing guards. I was even patrol captain In the 6th grade. That means I got the blue badge and the cool helmet all that year. So what is the big deal today. Find the most responsible kids in the school and let them do the job. And get someone from the SPD to stop by once in a while give the kids a pat on the back in front of the other students. The most it would cost would be a few orange vests for kids and some cool badges to go on them.Â
 @ErichBritton You got to run the crew too? It's cool being the boss, ain't it? One winter I had this flag that just had this steel rod for a handle instead of the new fiberglass ones I'd let the others use. I had a speeder come in my crosswalk when kids were there, and I laid that heavy steel rod into that jerk's car hood as hard as I could. What did I care about what a new Jag was worth? He reported me and the police gave me a commendation.
 @FreeCoffeeNow! LOL... our flags had handles made of wood... very... heavy.... very.... dense.... wood...!!!
We saw Denise Whitaker at our school this afternoon. Â She failed to report Highland Park Elementary DOES have a crossing guard. Â He stands at the corner of a higher traffic area, 9th & Trenton. Â Where she was standing, 11th & Trenton, the student guards are there in their traffic vests, monitored by a school administrator.
I pretty much mastered crossing the street by age 7 or so.
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What is teh "safe" age now? 30?
 @wysoumible Just because a child has mastered crossing the street doesn't mean it is safe to do so. When there's a lot of traffic around and the drivers are going fast and not paying attention, you need someone visible (as in, taller than a seven year old and wearing a reflective vest and holding a stop sign) to step into the road and get traffic to stop so the kids can cross safely. It's a basic safety issue regardless of whether the kids know to stop and look both ways before crossing. That doesn't do them much good on busy roads where they have to dash through short gaps to get across at all because there is no requirement that drivers stop in those places. That's the whole reason schools started having crossing guards in the first place.
As Suzette says, the older kids were crossing guards in elementary school. I was one myself in 5th and 6th grade, one of about ten kids who signed up for it, and none of us were ever paid a penny for our time. The school issued us all a big red flag that had written on it "STOP", a bright red vest, and a white helmet. It was a service to the school and to the other kids, and it was enjoyable, except when it was raining, (then we wore yellow rain-slickers too), but doing our jobs even in the rain helped to teach us the concept of responsibility, of doing our duty even when it was uncomfortable to do so... which is not a bad thing at all.
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Why not use the older kids now as unpaid crossing guards, as we used to?
There's no lack of crossing guards, there's a lack of will to spend money on crossing guards.
Newsie, Parents were not notified! It would have been nice though...
 @Shelly Young I think schools sometimes forget that parents are their partners and that if they share information and ask for help they just might get it.  Not always but in a dangerous situation like kids dodging traffic I bet they would have had parents joining in to keep everyone safe.
Dangerous! There isn't a parking lot or spaces for parents at Viewlands Elementary. We park in the neighborhood and walk through busy traffic-filled intersections squeezing little hands tightly to keep them safe. Seeing little ones running, swerving, and sometimes stopping mid-street, is enough scare anyone. This is an accident waiting to happen. Please write into Seattle Public Schools and help, not only Viewlands, all Seattle schools get crosswalk guards in place. Thank you!
 @Shelly Young Are you also scared of your own shadow?
Did the district let the parents know ahead of time that the crosswalks would be unsupervised? Â Parents might have had a fighting chance to keep their kids safe if they knew they had to escort them to school because of unsupervised intersections. Â The article doesn't mention whether the district did any communicating about the issue ahead of school starting. Â It would be interesting to know.
 @newsie I was notified that they were hiring for my kid's school, but I don't think they mentioned that the crosswalks would be unattended in the meantime.
 @merline and Shelly Young.  Thanks for the info.  If the parents had been fully informed I doubt there would have been that many kids doing the traffic dodge.  And those without parental help would have had other adults to tag along with. Â
My first thought was"What, they need taller crossing guards?"
Lame, I know but what can I say.
Um.. when I was younger, parents were crossing guards. Â Older kids in school were crossing guards. Â I remember in the 6th grade being a crossing guard. Â Perhaps we should to that more, teach responsibility. Â
"Many also wonder why the district doesn't assign staff or substitute teachers as temporary guards until permanent ones are hired. 'They have to be trained,' Wippel said. 'It's a liability issue if we just send anybody out there.'"
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So train your staff to cover the crosswalks! DUH!!! At my son's schoo,l the school nurse and one of the librarians are always out there at the crosswalks. They don't hire people to only serve as crosswalk guards. It is RIDICULOUS that you have the crosswalks unmanned due to "lack of training" or a hiring freeze. COME ON!
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I hope no kids get injured from lack of supervision at crosswalks while the schools sit there and twiddle their thumbs.
 @Tattooed_Angel I know! I would think that it's a bigger liability if they don't send anybody out at all!Â