Local
In D.C., some kids crossing at their own risk
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
August 29, 2008
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| Parents walk their children to their first day of school at Kimball Elementary School. Students start the new school year in Washington, DC on Monday August 25, 2008. (Andrew Harnik/Examiner) |
It is unclear how many schools, or specifically which schools, do not have crossing guards. The crossing guard program has 149 part-time employees to cover 123 school buildings, said Karyn LeBlanc, spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Transportation.
“There are schools where there are no crossing guards,” LeBlanc said. “We are definitely looking to expand.”
D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson wrote letters this week to both Mayor Adrian Fenty and DDOT Interim Director Frank Seales Jr. “to ascertain why there are not crossing guards at all schools which need them.” DDOT assumed control of the crossing guard program from the police department at Fenty’s direction.
“The school year began this week, many schools are without crossing guards, and the MPD is having to redeploy its officers to fill in for DDOT,” Mendelson, chairman of the public safety committee, wrote to Seales.
Police spokeswoman Traci Hughes disputed Mendelson’s account, claiming that “MPD has not been required to fill any crossing guard slots.”
“DDOT has hired enough people,” she said.
Mendelson responded, regarding officer redeployment: “I’ve seen it.”
The transportation department is slated to receive an additional $2.7 million in fiscal 2009, which starts Oct. 1, to hire 125 more crossing guards. In the meantime, LeBlanc said, guards are “certainly placed at those areas where they are most needed.”
“Safety is our first priority,” she said.
D.C. Schools opened Monday. Fenty announced recently that 13 schools, included several charters, would receive added attention — education, enforcement and engineering — as part of the federally-funded Safe Routes to Schools program.
