The District of North Vancouver is considering hiring paid crossing guards for elementary schools following an increase in parents’ bad driving behaviour during drop-off and pick-up.
Rob Dale, the traffic safety coordinator for Montroyal Elementary School in North Vancouver, told Global News there have been multiple close calls outside the school.
“Two years ago, the then vice principal… was so concerned about the traffic behaviour that she saw in front of the school after seeing three really close calls in the parking lot and in front of the school that she came out and she spent two weeks trying to calm traffic, trying to slow people down, trying to alter people’s behaviour,” he said.
“And during those two weeks, people were swearing at her, people were threatening her. She got a lot of abuse. And as a parent to four kids at this school, I spoke with her and decided that I would step up and try to help.”
Dale said it has been a demoralizing experience.
“Today, for example, we had nine infractions and today was a good day,” he said.
“We had a couple people drop off right in front of the driveway. Couple of illegal U-turns. We had two people speeding. We had people dropping off in no stopping zones. And two parents decided to drive right into the staff lot and drop off their kids in the staff lot, which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when they’re backing out of those spots and there’s lots of kids walking through the parking lot, you know, those are situations that we don’t want to create.”
Dale said he is concerned it is just a matter of time until a child gets hit.
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He said they need more volunteers and more people working to coordinate school drop-off and pick-up.
“In 18 months, I’m the only one who’s volunteered from our school,” Dale added.
“We have 280 students. So if we can’t get people to volunteer and a lot of people aren’t comfortable with that, a lot of people aren’t comfortable with a confrontation, a lot of people aren’t comfortable standing in traffic. So I think, yes, ultimately each school should have a safety plan. And if that safety plan involves paid crossing guards or paid traffic control people, then absolutely, that’s what we need to do.”
Dale said previously they had one parent who was driving so dangerously that another parent parked their car, chased the other parent into the school and an altercation occurred inside the school between them.
He said at another time, one parent was driving so dangerously that another parent stopped his truck in the middle of the road and got out and it almost ended in a fistfight in front of the students.
“I think the most concerning behaviour is the parents who are willing to risk their kids,” Dale said.
“Every day (we) have parents pull up in front of the school and they’ll take their kid, who’s maybe in kindergarten, to grade one, and they’ll tell them to run across two lanes of traffic to get to school.”
Mountroyal does have a drop-off zone that Dale said they have designed in consultation with the District and they send out a newsletter every month with updated traffic information.
Lisa Davis and Mahsa Khoshkhesal are volunteer parent traffic coordinators at Cleveland Elementary in North Vancouver.
They told Global News it is a similar story there.
“Everybody has to get their kids to school on time,” Davis said.
“So we just tell them what the rules are. And you’re always going to get people who, they think the rules should benefit them. And everybody needs to get their kids. And so we just try to be consistent.”
She added they get parents parking and dropping off their kids at the school in the disability zone.
“I had a gentleman almost run me over,” Davis added.
“Just a couple of days ago… they back up across the sidewalk and then pull a U-turn, like right in the middle of the section here where there’s kids walking.”
David said she walked out to tell the man not to please do that and she said he nearly ran her over and then sped off down the road like he was annoyed.
“I get that all the time,” she said.
Khoshkhesal said parents have yelled at her when they are dropping off their kids.
“I told the lady she can’t drop off yet, and she started swearing at me like right off the bat screaming,” she said.
“Another gentleman last year told me I was on a power trip for telling them where they can or cannot park.”
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