Crossing guards back on duty as city schools open

By Lethbridge Herald on September 3, 2024.

School patrol members at St. Patrick’s Fine Arts Elementary School hold up stop signs to motorists on Tuesday morning as students returned to classes at the start of the new school year. Herald photo by Al Beeber

Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

With the first day of school on Tuesday, crossing guards were back to work along with teachers.

Crossing guards play an important role for students as they head to school in the morning and leave at the end of the day.

The Alberta Motor Association School Safety Patrol Program has been in existence for more than 80 years and plays a role in keeping students safe.

More than 400 schools in the province utilize a total of 1,800 patrollers in Grades 5 and 6 who help guide pedestrians across crosswalks and provide a reminder to drivers to slow down.

Allison Purcell, the AMA School Safety Patrol co-ordinator in Lethbridge, said outside of St. Patrick’s Fine Arts School early Monday morning that school crossing guards take on a big commitment that lasts all year and they must be ready to help in all kinds of weather from sweltering heat, to rain to the bone-chilling cold of winter.

“They take their job very seriously,” Purcell said of the elementary school students.

On Monday a team of four patrollers wearing bright vests and carrying stop signs were assisting students and their parents across the street on the first day of classes.

“It’s great to have our patrollers back on our crosswalks. They’re helping keeping our community safer and ensuring that pedestrians are getting to and from school safely,” said Purcell.

The patrollers at St. Patrick’s had a full year of experience last year and got a reminder of what they need to do before school started.

All patrollers go through rigorous training in September, Purcell said.

Purcell is in charge of patrols across southern Alberta and said they aren’t in all local schools.

Leadership is a key component of safety patrols, Purcell said.

“Our patrollers are leaders within their schools. They have to volunteer to do this job and they do that training in September and they are out at the crosswalk whether it’s raining, snow, sunshine, hot days, they’re out at the crosswalk. It’s a commitment that they make for the whole year so they are big leaders in our communities and often we find that these leaders go into other leadership roles in community,” Purcell added.

“It is definitely an important job they’re doing in their community and they take the job very seriously.”

Purcell said safety is a shared responsibility among pedestrians and drivers who need to put their phones down and pay attention to patrollers.

Purcell said there have been no fatalities or serious injuries when patrollers have been on crosswalks since the program started.

Since the last school year started, Lethbridge has employed harmonious zones in schools and playgrounds which are in effect daily from 7:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. 2 months a year.

Lethbridge Police Service Sergeant Danny Lomness, who is in charge of the LPS’s Traffic Response Unit, said there will be a higher flow of pedestrian and vehicle traffic in school areas and it’s important for motorists to pay attention to their surroundings, adding they need to give themselves time to make their drop-offs at schools and give space to other motorists.

And they need to recognize that youth “sometimes don’t always know the consequences of their actions.”

Lomness said hopefully since the harmonization came into effect a year ago drivers will know they have to slow down in school and playground areas.

“From what we can see people are paying attention but we still have to remind some people they still need to slow down in these areas,” the sergeant added.

St. Patrick’s principal Kathy Jones-Husch called the first day of school like New Year’s Day for some people.

“It’s really good to be back. For many people in school, the first day of school is kind of like New Year’s Day so we’ve been hard at work over the last week getting everything ready for the students.”

Jones-Husch said staff have many new families to welcome to the school with enrolment up by about 10 students, not a large figure but “an increase is always nice to see.”

The school is always trying to see students engaged and creative with older grades instituting a new science curriculum and Grade 6 teachers are piloting the province’s new optional social studies program, the principal said.

“We’re interested to see how all of that works.”

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