Pedestrians Have The Right Away!

On many different occasions when walking my daughter to and from school cars and even school buses, yes school buses, have not stopped for us to walk across the crosswalk. I had thought about complaining to the school about getting a stop sign back at the crosswalk but decided I didn't want to cause any problems. There used to be a stop sign but we are unsure of what happened to it. Well, one morning, I decided that the school needs a stop sign back up at the cross walk!

My daughter and I were CLEARLY standing at the crosswalk a few weeks ago waiting to go across the street and I'll be darned if a car didn't swerve over to go around us instead of stopping for us to walk across. What part of pedestrians have the right away do people NOT understand? Here we are standing at the crosswalk that has pedestrian signs and the road marked with white lines across the street from a school, my daughter has her backpack on, and it is almost time for school to start. Wouldn't you think it would be OBVIOUS we are wanting to cross the street to go into the school? Apparently it isn't to some people! Some of the cars that do not stop for us have been parents coming out of the school parking lot from picking up or dropping off their own children! You can bet your bottom dollar that if it were them walking their kids to and from school and I didn't stop for them to walk across the street that they would not be happy either!

So I had had enough and on this particular morning I stopped the principal to ask about getting a stop sign put back up. I told him it is unbelievable to me how many cars do not stop when we are clearly waiting to cross the street. I told him it makes me not ever want to let my child walk to school by herself. He said they had a crossing guard in the afternoon but could see how that could be a problem in the mornings with no one out there and said he would check into it.

I really didn't think that the principal would do anything. I figured he was just telling me what I wanted to hear and that was all that would amount of it. I was wrong.

This morning when walking my daughter to school there was actually a crossing guard. I was surprised. She didn't seem to happy to be there but was there none the less.

She came in right behind us when we were walking in and a few other staff members who were greeting kids at the door asked her about having to be out there as a crossing guard in the mornings too. She told them that a parent had complained. Ummm.....little did they know that I was that parent. One of the other woman went onto to say that she didn't know why someone needed to be out there in the morning because none of the kids walk to school by themselves. They stood there and continued to talk but my daughter and I went on into the school. As I came back out two of the woman were still chatting and I heard one of them say something about she didn't know which mom it was and basically she said that because they have a lot of them who apparently complain.

Well, that just irks me to hear them say all this because in my opinion whether I'm with my daughter or not there should still be a crossing guard or a stop sign because pedestrians have the right away! They need to be doing something to make sure the cars are stopping for people to cross the road whether I'm with my kid or not! When I asked about getting a stop sign I assumed that the kids who walk home from school probably walk to school as well. I have no idea if they do or don't. I would have been just fine if they'd just got a stop sign again like before. They chose to have a person stand out there. And then to say that they have a lot of complaining moms? Well, I don't think this is an unjustifiable complaint? Do you?