CLEVELAND — The school year may be winding down, but concerns about school crossing guards are ramping up.
Viewers like Eric Swinderman reached out to News 5 Transportation Reporter Caitlin Hunt with concerns about safety during pick-up and drop-off times at Douglas MacArthur Girls' Leadership Academy.
"It is by far the most dangerous situation I have encountered at a school," he said.
He said parents line up on Puritas Avenue to make a left onto Valleyside Road, where the school is located. The line for pick-ups and drop-offs isn't the problem, though. Swinderman said it's the speeding cars.
"You can't see," he said. "You can't see because the cars that aren't going to be turning into the school are flying down Puritas at 45 mph. It's the wild west at that corner."
Swinderman said he had asked for the placement of a school crossing guard for the last two years. He hasn't received a response from the school or the Cleveland police.
Eileen Wilson, the executive director of the local immigrant and refugee organization Yamanna, said she is hearing similar concerns from the families she serves.
"Sometimes the child is walking alone, and the crossing guard is the person that helps them cross the road," she said.
Wilson said immigrant and refugee families have so much to learn when they relocate, and guidance from a crossing guard helps them understand American traffic patterns. Wilson said any inconsistency in crossing guard coverage could have deadly consequences.
"It can end up in a tragic situation where the children didn't know 'Where am I supposed to cross?'" she said. "'Is the car going to stop?'"
So, I asked the Cleveland Police Department: Is there a crossing guard shortage?
"There isn't a straight answer, per se," Sergeant Freddy Diaz with the Cleveland Police Department said.
CPD said 195 crossing guards are currently employed by CPD to cover Cleveland's 88 schools.
"It's a multi-level process that we take to identify the amount of kids crossing or the locations they are walking to," Sgt. Diaz said. "Once we get to that point, we will deploy our crossing guards as needed."
Those numbers could change as CMSD says 29 of its schools will close next school year. Diaz said while closing schools is disruptive, they may actually allow CPD to rethink where crossing guards are needed the most.
"In a weird way it's probably going to help us reconfigure our deployment in terms of crossing guards, which is something we are working on with CMSD right now to currently identify needs," he said.
Those in the community hope that means their neighborhoods will have crossing guards.
"You're just saying 'Sorry! Our hands are tied," Swinderman said. "I mean, how are you going to look someone in the face when their kid gets hit?"
Applications are open for school crossing guards. To apply, CLICK HERE.
Caitlin Hunt is the Good Morning Cleveland traffic and transportation reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on X @CaitlinHuntTV, on Facebook or email her at Caitlin.Hunt@wews.com.
