A Disturbing Letter
I have been all hyped up because of the tremendous efforts of many people with regard to school safety this year. Like you, I have been reading up a lot on news and activities with regard to school safety and it seems that there are more awareness campaigns going on all over the country this year. However, I ran across a very disturbing letter from a concerned citizen, which was published on Philly.com.
Margaret Spaeder-Hodges wrote:
On a recent afternoon, I was traveling south on B Street toward Allegheny. The traffic light was red, and I was outside the John B. Stetson Middle School at dismissal. A girl of about 12 was jaywalking with a younger girl.
The 12-year-old held her hand up to signal me to stop. The girls went between my car and a tractor-trailer and then out into the opposing lanes of traffic. Thankfully, they successfully crossed to the opposite side of the street.
Most appalling to me was the fact that an adult waiting for the girls didn’t try to stop them from jaywalking or reprimand the girls for this very dangerous behavior.
Unfortunately, this incident wasn’t the most disturbing of the day. Immediately after that jaywalking, a young boy about 10 years old darted between the stopped traffic and ducked UNDER the 18-wheel tractor-trailer and dashed to the opposite side of the street.
All the adults, parents and school officials in the area did nothing to intervene in these two incidents. As a matter of fact, the school officials (some in securitylike uniforms) directed all their attention toward the children on the sidewalk - and had their backs toward the street.
This is appalling! It is so appalling that I do not know what to say! The fact that there were adults in the area and that they didn’t do anything makes me so mad. It is fortunate that the children were able to cross unharmed but what if they didn’t? Ms. Spaeder-Hodges also wrote:
I understand that our city faces many serious problems. Some may think that children’s jaywalking is only a minor infraction, not worthy of concern.
But I don’t agree! We’ll never solve the major problems without correcting the “small” ones, and I hope that someone will give this dangerous matter some attention. We need to keep our children safe, and drivers shouldn’t have to maneuver through a chaotic mass of children in the streets.
I totally agree with her. Jaywalking may be a minor infraction in the eyes of the law BUT I am sure that if those children were hurt, it wouldn’t have been a minor incident at all! Parents, wake up! We should be teaching our children to follow “minor” rules if we want them to stay safe. And school safety officers, widen your horizons! There are more children out there than those within the school premises and the side walks.
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Posted on October 3rd, 2008 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, K-6, Parents, People Involved, School Grade Level, School Safety Issues, School bus safety, Students
Children learn by example. All too often I’ve seen parents walking their children across the street, hand in hand, in the middle of the block.
Of course these are the same parents that complain about speeding around schools when they are also the ones doing the speeding themselves.
“Children learn by example.” - Very true! That is why a lot really rests on our shoulders.
Nice looking blog. Which template are you using? Nice post as well!