vanillacoke
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Michigan
(Sorry about the double post; my mouse decided not to cooperate before I got finished)
This is going to be a long story, so you may want to get some snacks.
***For tl;dr version scroll to bottom***
I work as a crossing guard in my hometown. There's another crossing guard at an intersection on a main road a block away from me, and we are there because the middle school that the people we cross come from have an agreement with the police department to do so. There are three intersections that are by the school: the one I work at which is a 4-way, a main road 4-way that's a block to the east of me where another crossing guard works, and a 2-way intersection to the south of me that's at the main entrance to the school. The way things are set up is that, instead of having crossing guards at all three intersections, the students have to go out of their way and follow a convoluted route that goes from my intersection to the other crossing guard's and beyond. From what I have been told, things have been set up like this for a very long time.
There are a myriad of problems with the way things are set up. The biggest one is that it's an unenforcable rule and is causing students who are doing nothing wrong to get in trouble -- there are students who live down by the 2-way intersection and have to go down that way to get home(from what I understand, the other crossing guard got the names of four of them and they have to set up convoluted exceptions for those people :/ ), for instance. The 2-way that nobody's allowed to use opens up to the main entrance of the school, so logic denotes that when people leave the school, they're going to take the 2-way as it's the quickest way to their homes/the nearby gas station/whatever. Somehow, the crossing guards are expected to go out of their way to stop people who are doing nothing wrong except taking an alternate route home, causing us to be distracted from our posts and keeping us from being able to cross anybody else who shows up safely. What are we supposed to do, chase them down the street with our stop signs?
The other big one is the fact that the 2-way intersection is... well, a 2-way. I and the other crossing guard work at 4-way intersections, which due to their nature means that people on one street will drive, then the others will drive, each in turn, meaning anyone willing to wait a minute or two will always have an opportunity to cross with a relative amount of safety. At the 2-way, this is not the case. The road that opens up to the school has to yield to the one that goes north or south, which means cars can buzz on through without stopping, meaning people have to play chicken to get across if the traffic's heavy enough. I asked the police department about putting up lights at the intersections so people could cross, and was told they couldn't do that because I work on a road in a historical district. Since you can't just put in lights, the only way that people can cross safely on that 2-way is with... drum roll please... a crossing guard! Yet they don't put one in.
This has caused major problems for us crossing guards -- I don't know if I should go into detail about this because I don't want to appear vindictive and ultimately she herself isn't the main issue -- but this has caused a huge rift between us and the other crossing guard has taken to harassing me every day -- making insulting comments as I go to and from my stop, you know the deal. I think she might be trying to get me fired, and it's getting to the point where I want to quit, which I guess would be what she ultimately wants. All of this happened because of, well, that policy.
I've been given a bunch of different explanations about the way things are set up: it's been like this for a very long time and that's just the way things are, the intersection's a 2-way, the school system will get sued, etc., but if you think about it all of these excuses are flimsy and don't really stand up to some critical thinking. Doing this out of fear of a lawsuit seems ridiculous because their system can never be 100 percent enforced and will always leave them at risk whereas if they just had a crossing guard put in, they'd be fine. What would happen if someone got hit while using the 2-way with no guard there? Would they just try to put all of the responsibility and the blame on the student while on the other hand say they're not capable of crossing the street by themselves? I already addressed the fact that it's a 2-way above. The fact that it's been like this for a long time strikes me as odd; why didn't anyone else try to do anything about this, or did they and fail? If so, why? None of the reasons I've been given answer the big question that rings in my head: why would they make students go out of their way like this when putting in a crossing guard would be simpler and make more sense? Is there something I'm missing here?
So the point of all this is that I want to go to city council and get them to make the police department put a crossing guard on that 2-way. I was asked why I didn't just go to the chief and I had to tell them that I was afraid of getting fired for asking about this, considering all the trouble the other guard is trying to cause me. So, the only solution is to go over their heads. I don't know how to schmoozle a group of people like that to "see the light" as it were, though, and I have a bunch of questions I wanted to ask you guys about the finer details about getting something like this put in place.
The big question I have is: how should I go about this? When I went to city hall about this, I was told by one of the city council members to write a letter to her and go to their meeting which takes place in two weeks, but I don't think simply telling them what I've just told you would be enough. Should I pass around a petition and drum up popular support, or talk to council members individually, or what-all? What's the best strategy?
Are there any laws on the books anywhere dealing with 2-way intersections and crossing guards, and if so, what are they? I tried looking through the archives of my local paper to see if anyone got hit at the 2-way, and I couldn't find anything at all. I have no way of looking up the city ordinances online because we are a small town and the website for our city only lists basic generalized information about the different departments and stuff. Are there any traffic reasons for not putting a guard on a 2-way and how would I go about getting what evidence or information the city has about such a thing(traffic studies or whatever)from them?
If I decide to pass around a petition, I guess I'll have to go to the city's office again and ask them about it, but I also want to know: are there any restrictions on who can sign a petition? I'm going to assume this will be popular among the students, would it be legal for them to be able to sign a petition(I would hope so :/ ), and if not, what laws or rulings or whatever say so?
Finally: are there any holes in what I'm proposing? If so, what are they and how could they be filled or rectified? Is there anything else I need to know about this sort of thing? Have any of you guys tried to do something like this and if so, could you give me some pointers?
Thank you very much for your time and sorry about the long post. And sorry about all the questions; there's a lot of research I have to do about this on my own which is next to impossible to conduct because of the city's ****ty website, which is obviously why I'm here.
*** tl;dr: I'm a crossing guard and the school and police department, the latter of which I work for, has set up a very convoluted route to force the students to avoid using a 2-way intersection that badly needs a crossing guard. It's causing trouble for the students, it's caused a rift between myself and the other crossing guard, the reasoning for the route is nonsensical, what's the best way to talk our city council into changing things and are there any flaws in my observations?
(Sorry about the double post; my mouse decided not to cooperate before I got finished)
This is going to be a long story, so you may want to get some snacks.
***For tl;dr version scroll to bottom***
I work as a crossing guard in my hometown. There's another crossing guard at an intersection on a main road a block away from me, and we are there because the middle school that the people we cross come from have an agreement with the police department to do so. There are three intersections that are by the school: the one I work at which is a 4-way, a main road 4-way that's a block to the east of me where another crossing guard works, and a 2-way intersection to the south of me that's at the main entrance to the school. The way things are set up is that, instead of having crossing guards at all three intersections, the students have to go out of their way and follow a convoluted route that goes from my intersection to the other crossing guard's and beyond. From what I have been told, things have been set up like this for a very long time.
There are a myriad of problems with the way things are set up. The biggest one is that it's an unenforcable rule and is causing students who are doing nothing wrong to get in trouble -- there are students who live down by the 2-way intersection and have to go down that way to get home(from what I understand, the other crossing guard got the names of four of them and they have to set up convoluted exceptions for those people :/ ), for instance. The 2-way that nobody's allowed to use opens up to the main entrance of the school, so logic denotes that when people leave the school, they're going to take the 2-way as it's the quickest way to their homes/the nearby gas station/whatever. Somehow, the crossing guards are expected to go out of their way to stop people who are doing nothing wrong except taking an alternate route home, causing us to be distracted from our posts and keeping us from being able to cross anybody else who shows up safely. What are we supposed to do, chase them down the street with our stop signs?
The other big one is the fact that the 2-way intersection is... well, a 2-way. I and the other crossing guard work at 4-way intersections, which due to their nature means that people on one street will drive, then the others will drive, each in turn, meaning anyone willing to wait a minute or two will always have an opportunity to cross with a relative amount of safety. At the 2-way, this is not the case. The road that opens up to the school has to yield to the one that goes north or south, which means cars can buzz on through without stopping, meaning people have to play chicken to get across if the traffic's heavy enough. I asked the police department about putting up lights at the intersections so people could cross, and was told they couldn't do that because I work on a road in a historical district. Since you can't just put in lights, the only way that people can cross safely on that 2-way is with... drum roll please... a crossing guard! Yet they don't put one in.
This has caused major problems for us crossing guards -- I don't know if I should go into detail about this because I don't want to appear vindictive and ultimately she herself isn't the main issue -- but this has caused a huge rift between us and the other crossing guard has taken to harassing me every day -- making insulting comments as I go to and from my stop, you know the deal. I think she might be trying to get me fired, and it's getting to the point where I want to quit, which I guess would be what she ultimately wants. All of this happened because of, well, that policy.
I've been given a bunch of different explanations about the way things are set up: it's been like this for a very long time and that's just the way things are, the intersection's a 2-way, the school system will get sued, etc., but if you think about it all of these excuses are flimsy and don't really stand up to some critical thinking. Doing this out of fear of a lawsuit seems ridiculous because their system can never be 100 percent enforced and will always leave them at risk whereas if they just had a crossing guard put in, they'd be fine. What would happen if someone got hit while using the 2-way with no guard there? Would they just try to put all of the responsibility and the blame on the student while on the other hand say they're not capable of crossing the street by themselves? I already addressed the fact that it's a 2-way above. The fact that it's been like this for a long time strikes me as odd; why didn't anyone else try to do anything about this, or did they and fail? If so, why? None of the reasons I've been given answer the big question that rings in my head: why would they make students go out of their way like this when putting in a crossing guard would be simpler and make more sense? Is there something I'm missing here?
So the point of all this is that I want to go to city council and get them to make the police department put a crossing guard on that 2-way. I was asked why I didn't just go to the chief and I had to tell them that I was afraid of getting fired for asking about this, considering all the trouble the other guard is trying to cause me. So, the only solution is to go over their heads. I don't know how to schmoozle a group of people like that to "see the light" as it were, though, and I have a bunch of questions I wanted to ask you guys about the finer details about getting something like this put in place.
The big question I have is: how should I go about this? When I went to city hall about this, I was told by one of the city council members to write a letter to her and go to their meeting which takes place in two weeks, but I don't think simply telling them what I've just told you would be enough. Should I pass around a petition and drum up popular support, or talk to council members individually, or what-all? What's the best strategy?
Are there any laws on the books anywhere dealing with 2-way intersections and crossing guards, and if so, what are they? I tried looking through the archives of my local paper to see if anyone got hit at the 2-way, and I couldn't find anything at all. I have no way of looking up the city ordinances online because we are a small town and the website for our city only lists basic generalized information about the different departments and stuff. Are there any traffic reasons for not putting a guard on a 2-way and how would I go about getting what evidence or information the city has about such a thing(traffic studies or whatever)from them?
If I decide to pass around a petition, I guess I'll have to go to the city's office again and ask them about it, but I also want to know: are there any restrictions on who can sign a petition? I'm going to assume this will be popular among the students, would it be legal for them to be able to sign a petition(I would hope so :/ ), and if not, what laws or rulings or whatever say so?
Finally: are there any holes in what I'm proposing? If so, what are they and how could they be filled or rectified? Is there anything else I need to know about this sort of thing? Have any of you guys tried to do something like this and if so, could you give me some pointers?
Thank you very much for your time and sorry about the long post. And sorry about all the questions; there's a lot of research I have to do about this on my own which is next to impossible to conduct because of the city's ****ty website, which is obviously why I'm here.
*** tl;dr: I'm a crossing guard and the school and police department, the latter of which I work for, has set up a very convoluted route to force the students to avoid using a 2-way intersection that badly needs a crossing guard. It's causing trouble for the students, it's caused a rift between myself and the other crossing guard, the reasoning for the route is nonsensical, what's the best way to talk our city council into changing things and are there any flaws in my observations?
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