One-Third of Intersections Near Elementary Schools Go Unmanned, Crossing Guards Say

By JOHN SCHREIBER
City News Service

As Los Angeles Unified School District students returned to classes today, crossing guards and community activists packed the City Council chamber to express concern over a shortage of guards at nearly 170 intersections near schools.

Community activists said a study by the Fix LA Coalition found that a third of intersections near elementary schools that are eligible for crossing guards go unstaffed.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation identified 507 eligible intersections near 307 elementary schools, but only 338 have regular crossing guards, the study found.

“Our city, with its misguided budgetary decisions, is leaving hundreds of thousands of children at risk every day,” said Cheryl Parisi, chairwoman of the Coalition of City Unions. “The city does not have its child safety priorities correct.”

Fix LA Coalition leaders said the city employs 363 crossing guards, compared to 576 guards in 2008 -- a 37 percent decline. They called on city officials to restore positions eliminated during the recession and recommended placing guards at busy intersections near all elementary and middle schools.

LAUSD Board Member Steve Zimmer said student safety was just as important as the school district’s campaign to increase graduation rates this year.

“In order to get to the graduation stage, you must first safely cross the street to get to the school,” Zimmer said. “If we have a city and a community that cannot invest in safe passages, we don’t get to scream about the graduation crisis.”

City crossing guards earn an average of $13,500 per year and work an average of four hours per day on split shifts, according to the Fix LA study. Crossing guard advocates said based on that figure, the city could restore crossing guard staffing to 2008 levels at a cost of about $3 million per year.

Parisi said the city was cutting a split-shift incentive in which crossing guards are paid for for a two-hour break between morning and afternoon duties. She said eliminating the incentive threatens recruitment and is unfair to the guards.

“This program is essential to recruit and retain our crossing guards,” Parisi said. “Instead of continuing to cut our crossing guard program, we should continue to invest in it.”

In February, Marleni Barrera, 42, was fatally struck as she walked her 9- year-old to Citizens of the World Charter School in Hollywood. Fix LA said the intersection where Barrera died qualified for a crossing guard but did not have one. Since the accident, the city has added a crossing guard.

“There have been too many accidents, too many deaths,” Parisi said. “The need for crossing guards has not declined. It has increased.”

PHOTO Patch file photo.

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