School patrols back at work

By Lethbridge Herald on September 3, 2025.

Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald

St. Patrick’s Fine Arts School crossing guard Leo Kolebaba helps  students and their parents cross the street safely Tuesday morning as  a new school year started.

For more than 85 years, Alberta Motor Association school crossing guards have ensured that there have been no serious injuries or fatalities at schools they monitored.

On Tuesday, guards returned to work at schools across the province, including Lethbridge.

At St. Patrick’s Fine Arts School in the Riverstone subdivision, three returning guards started work at 8 a.m. helping their fellow students cross safely to begin their first day of a new school year.

The first school patrols in Alberta began in 1937 in Calgary and soon after the AMA got involved, expanding the program to Edmonton and then across the province. Today more than 400 schools and 11,800 patrollers  are enrolled in the program. The three patrollers at St. Patricks on Tuesday morning – Emmet Bomnof, Dominic Draganiuk and Leo Kolebaba –  were all sixth graders doing their second year of patrols.

Allison Purcell of the AMA school safety program says safety patrollers at crosswalks are important for student safety.

“Together with our school patrollers and our community, as well as our drivers, we’re ensuring that kids get to and from school” safely, Purcell says of the program, which is a joint venture with other partners.

AMA school patrollers’ safety record “really shows the credibility to the program and the importance of having patrollers on our crosswalks  in our city,” says Purcell. “It is really important the job that they do every day. They’re out there, they’re making eye contact with drivers, they’re  helping kids get across the street safely.”

With school back, it’s important for drivers to pay more attention to kids in school and playground zones, which have a speed limit year round.

Purcell says drivers need to slow down and pay attention while driving  through the zones. Also, parents don’t need to park right up  close to a school when dropping youth off; instead, she suggests they  park farther away and walk with the students to schools.

“It really is a shared responsibility.”

Not all schools in Lethbridge have a safety patrol, but the new West Coulee Station school will be starting a patrol next week, Purcell notes.

Constable Donald Realini of the youth and engagement unit of Lethbridge Police Service says everyone needs a reminder to readjust with the start of the school season.

“It’s really great to be able to support the other youth in taking a leadership role in helping out and contributing to their school communities so we appreciate their efforts, “ Realini says of the school patrollers.

It’s important for drivers to be aware of their surroundings, he says, especially with the coming winter and reduced traction.

“Slow down a little bit and be prepared to stop. Students are excited about being back to school and will dart out between cars because they’re not always focused on traffic.”