Skip to content

Episode 133: A Lifesaving Story of Crossing Guards Keeping Kids Safe

They are out in the rain, sleet, snow, and ice, protecting students from harm. We’re talking about school crossing guards.

On this episode of the Supercast, we meet one of the many heroes helping to get students safely across busy streets to and from school each and every day. Hear how one amazing crossing guard recently saved a young life.


Audio Transcription

Anthony Godfrey:
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are out in the rain, sleet, snow, and ice, even when it is sunny and nice, protecting students from harm. We're talking about school crossing guards. On this episode of the Supercast, we meet one of the many heroes helping to get students safely across busy streets, to and from school, each and every day. Hear how one amazing crossing guard recently saved a young life.

We are here outside Eastlake Elementary School talking to Lorena, one of the crossing guards. Thanks for taking time with us.

Lorena:
Yeah, my pleasure. I'm glad to be doing this.

Anthony Godfrey:
How long have you been a crossing guard for Eastlake Elementary School?

Lorena:
I've been a crossing guard here for 11 years.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what made you want to start as a crossing guard? What interested you about that?

Lorena:
It was just a really fun part-time gig. I had little babies at the time, and so I could bring them with me in my car. Sit in my car for a little bit, cross kids. It’s just a good part-time job as a mom. And then I just, I started really loving my kids and just stayed here.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, kids start their day with you. You're really the first person that they see outside of the house. The first adult they see on their way to school. Tell me about what that means and what kind of relationship you're able to build as a result. Morning!

Lorena:
Good morning guys. The kids are awesome. Most kids are bright and, you know, ready to start their day. Good morning. How are you? Some kids are not morning people and they just kind of drag their feet. But yeah, I've seen kids grow up and seen little brothers and sisters come on towards the end, for as many years as I've been here. So it's been kind of nice.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, 11 years would take someone from kindergarten to being able to drive. I know that you wouldn't see them past sixth grade, but do they ever stop back by and you see them through the neighborhood?

Lorena:
Yeah. I actually have one family who is really close to where I would park for crossing and they stop every now and then to say hi. And they're like, “Oh, hi!” and they know me and yeah. Their oldest, that I started crossing, she's I think a sophomore or a junior in high school now. It’s nice.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, that's really cool. So when you see kids in the morning, can you kind of tell whether they've had a bad start to the day already sometimes and you can check in with them?

Lorena:
Oh yes. All the time. We laugh when we say good morning and it's a ‘Good morning!” or grumble. Some kids tell you their whole life story in a matter of the 30 seconds that we cross them. And some kids just kinda drag their feet.

Anthony Godfrey:
I can imagine, but it shows you how nice it is for kids to have a connection with someone they can share that with. What are some of the things that kids will tell you about their morning on their way in?

Lorena:
Oh, one little girl loves to share whether or not her grandma woke up in a good mood or not. And so it's fun. And she'll say, ‘she was great today’. Yesterday she told us something about the dog barking and so everyone was in a bad mood.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. So you get the weather report on grandma every morning. How things are going to go. Tell me, do kids recognize you out in the wild as well?

Lorena:
Sometimes they do. I'm really bundled up. I get very cold. I'm a very cold person. So sometimes all you see is my eyes. And so they look at me kind of wondering, I know you from somewhere, but most of the time I do, I get recognized and they say hi.

Anthony Godfrey:
So being a cold person, this is kind of a tough job. You're outside. It's a beautiful morning right now, but it's still a little crisp. So for a lot of the school year, you've really got to bundle up, I would think.

Lorena:
Oh yes, I wear at least 16 layers every day. It’s a little exaggerated.

Anthony Godfrey:
16 layers. That seems right. You can adjust to the moment that way.

Lorena:
Yeah, no, I do. I bundle up really well. And sometimes I ask myself why I continue, why I'm standing out in the freezing cold, but it's something I've grown to love. And as long as I'm bundled up and it's 45 minutes of my day.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are the hours that you work?

Lorena:
So we start at 8:25 to give our early birds a little cushion and then end at 9:05 to give our late birds a cushion as well to get crossed.

Anthony Godfrey:
And then after school what time are you here in the afternoon?

Lorena:
So, I'm only a morning crossing guard.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, okay.

Lorena:
I still have kids that need rides everywhere, so I've only done mornings and then I sub every now and then for afternoon crossings. But I only do mornings.

Anthony Godfrey:
I guess I kind of assumed that everyone would do mornings and afternoons, but that would work out nicely. You'd do the morning and you're set for the day. Okay. Now, I understand that you had a close call in the recent past.

Lorena:
Yes. Yes, I did.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about that. What happened?

Lorena:
It was just a regular morning. We were crossing kids towards the end of our crossing. We have a double crossing, so my other crossing guard, Heidi, was on her side and I was crossing on my side. Thankfully Heidi yelled, “Hey, Hey, Hey!” So I was able to turn my head and as I turned my head, this driver was just driving through. She was zoned out, didn't really see us in our big yellow jackets and our big stop sign. I had to kind of jump in front of the car as the student was walking. She was walking through, she was like between both of our crossing zones. And so thankfully I was just there at the right time.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you describe that, jumping in front of a moving car, that is instinct. That's just that protective instinct of that child kicking in.

Lorena:
Yes. You know, I didn't think about it. I just knew that I had to get the driver's attention. Thankfully, she wasn't going very fast. She was just rolling through. I really think she was zoned out. She didn't see anything. She didn't see any one of us. And so when I got her attention, she was able to slam on her brakes.  A lot of people that drive through here, every now and then they just roll through our stop signs or roll through and we have to give them a nice wave and let them know we're here. And it's hard, especially when you're running late or when you are trying to get through. And we are trying to just make this safe for the kids and trying to teach the kids at the same time. ‘Hey, let's not just run through, or please get off your bike.’ And so it's a difficult spot to be put in to stop the kids and stop the cars at the same time.

Anthony Godfrey:
How did it feel jumping in front of this car afterward? I mean, you did it in the moment. You didn't think about it. The girl was safe as a result of your actions. How did that feel after that happened? And you walked back to the corner?
Lorena:

I just said, thank God that I was there. Okay. And then we moved on. It just happened so quickly. We get a lot of loud cars. It just happened so quickly that I didn't really think about it until afterwards. I was a little shaken up, but then my day just kind of continued. And I was, I was just grateful to be there and to have the student cross safely. And that was it.
Anthony Godfrey:
And the child's mother sent you a letter, is that right?

Lorena:
Yes. She sent me a letter. I kind of had completely forgotten about the incident. That was just, I guess it's just part of the job. You just have to move on or else you can't really do your job correctly. And so she stopped me and she gave me some gloves, which was really cute.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, that's nice.

Lorena:
And then she did, she wrote me a letter. She said that her daughter really remembered the incident, and it kind of made her whole day. She came home, talking about it. And so she signed it, a grateful mom.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's incredible. Very impactful obviously for you to save that child. But on top of that, she'll never forget it. And neither will her mom, that's for sure.

Lorena:
Yeah. Yeah. So I was, I was just grateful to be there at the right time. We see any close calls with cars or, you know, things that we're not able to get to as fast as we would like to get to. So I was just grateful to be there. And I was grateful for my other crossing guard who was able to notify me, cuz my back was actually turned to the car.  I turned my back. I look the other way to make sure other cars are stopped. And so I was grateful for my partner,  because if she didn't yell, then I wouldn't have been able to turn around and stop the car.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well that emphasizes the teamwork that's required for it to keep kids safe.

Lorena:
Yeah. It definitely is. Our four-way stop is definitely a team work here. This is Maddie.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hi Maddie.

Maddie:
Hi!

Anthony Godfrey:
How are you?

Maddie:
Good.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you remember the day that car was coming your way?

Maddie:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Can you tell me about it?

Maddie:
So I was walking my scooter and the cross guard was out. And I think this girl wasn't paying attention and then she jumped in front and helped me.

Anthony Godfrey:
And how did that feel to you that she would jump in front of a car for you?

Maddie:
That made me really, really happy.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. And you told your mom that day and what did your mom think of that?

Maddie:
She was very, very happy.

Anthony Godfrey:
And so your mom wrote a letter that you brought to the crossing guard. Right? What else did you bring her?

Maddie:
We got her a gift card.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, that's very kind. That's very kind. What grade are you in?

Maddie:
2nd.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you like most about school?

Maddie:
I just like my teacher. She's really, really nice.

Anthony Godfrey:
Who's your teacher?

Maddie:
Ms. Staley.

Anthony Godfrey:
It sounds like you're surrounded by lots of nice people, your mom, crossing guard and teacher. That makes for a good day. Doesn't it?

Maddie:
It does.

Maddie:
I love your pink hair by the way.

Maddie:
Thanks.

Anthony Godfrey:
Have a great day.

Maddie:
Okay.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thank you very much for taking the time. And thanks for the work that you do keeping kids safe, coming to school. It's so important and I've come to value it even more as Superintendent as I travel around the District. We couldn't do it without you and it means a lot. So thanks for taking the time that you do over more than a decade. That's awesome.

Lorena:
Yeah, it's my pleasure. I love these kids and I'm in awe of crossing guards that have a bigger crossing than me because that takes a lot of diligence and a lot of time as well. So I really admire all the rest of our crossing guards as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. I only have one last question. Do crossing guards tell why did the chicken cross the road jokes?

Lorena:
No we don't, but I do have a lot of dad jokes that I keep in my back pocket to try to get kids to smile.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right. All right. Throw me a dad joke.

Lorena:
Oh no, I'm on the spot. Why did Cinderella get kicked off the baseball team?

Anthony Godfrey:
I don't know. Why?

Lorena:
Because she kept running away from the ball.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Very good. Thank you. Thank you.

Lorena:
It’s my pleasure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back, hear from more crossing guards who simply love the job of keeping kids safe.

Break:
Hello, I'm Tracy Miller, President of the Jordan School District Board of Education. There are seven members on the Board of Education, one in each voting district. We are committed to listening and serving our constituents as we work together to provide the best possible learning environment for the students we serve. As members of the Jordan Board of Education, we believe it is our duty and responsibility to: increase student achievement; provide parents with the choices they deserve and desire; recognize and reward quality in educators; empower school leaders through policy governance and professional development; and communicate with the public, legislators, business leaders, cities, and parents. We invite you to get to know the Board member who represents you in your voting district, and to please join us at our monthly board meeting held on the fourth Tuesday of every month. Or listen from the comfort of your home, on our live stream. For more information and to find your Board member, visit jordandistrict.org. With parent and community input and support we will continue our work to give students every opportunity to succeed in Jordan District schools and beyond. Thank you for your support. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Anthony Godfrey:
Heidi, you yelled. That's the reason Lorena was able to see that there was a car coming, a child in the way and jump in between. Describe that for me.

Heidi:
I just expected this car to stop and it wasn't, so I hurried and yelled out to Lorena as fast I could. I didn't know if I should throw my stop sign or what else, but a yell was all I could do right then.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what did you yell?

Heidi:
Like, ‘Hey, there's a car! Stop!” I didn't know if I was gonna get Lorena's attention or the car, if they could hear me through their window, but just a loud ‘Hey, stop!’ You know?

Anthony Godfrey:
So do you see a lot of phones out when people are driving?

Heidi:
Yeah, constantly. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
And not just connected to Bluetooth, like in their hands.

Heidi:
In their hands, looking at the screen as they're driving right here around the school. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it's a good reminder. Keep your eyes on the road and make sure that you're paying attention to what's going on around you.

Heidi:
It can be very quick. You don't know.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here with Deanne who oversees crossing guards for South Jordan City. How are you? Thanks for joining us.

Deanne:
Yes, absolutely. Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me how many crossing guards are there in South Jordan? We have a lot of schools in South Jordan.

Deanne:
We do. Okay. You're putting me on the spot. Let me think. We have 32. 32 crossing guards.

Anthony Godfrey:
32 crossing guards.

Deanne:
Yep. And we have probably 11 that’re subs. And then the rest are just like your regular. They do like a morning and an afternoon, or sometimes just a morning shift or sometimes just an afternoon shift. So Heidi does both. She does a morning and an afternoon. And then Lorena just does her morning shift and then Megan has an afternoon shift, but then she's also a sub that will fill in a lot of times for guards in the mornings.

Anthony Godfrey:
So Megan, you've worked at a lot of different schools, a lot of different intersections. Tell me what you see at different intersections in different schools.

Megan:
Oh goodness. I was gonna say they can be busier. They can be not as busy.

Deanne:
So's there's some schools that have the flashing lights. You have to get there ahead of time and you turn on those flashing lights. We’re there usually before the buses come, before the parents are starting to drop off kids to get those lights and stuff on, we make sure that we get our cone in the proper place for the traffic, to kind of help do traffic. Sometimes we cross some streets that are like a four way, a four lane. And a lot of times we just have one guard. So we have to be very cautious of making sure that we make eye contact with the driver before we actually start crossing the street to make sure that they see us and we see them. And then once we make sure we have our traffic under control, then we will use, you know, hand motions and kind of wave the kids on. So that once we have the traffic all stopped and everybody sees us, then that's when we wave the kids on to go ahead and cross with us.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you probably get lots of questions about where the regular crossing guard is.

Megan:
Yes I do. Yep.

Anthony Godfrey:
They're always wondering, so where are they? What's going on?

Megan:
Yes. If I'm subbing in the mornings, they're, you know where’s so and so, and, I don't quite know. You know, they could be at a doctor's appointment. They could be on, you know, vacation.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you're just ready to leap into action every morning when a substitute is needed.

Megan:
Yes. Yeah. Deanne's really good about letting me know, usually the night before. We're good about letting her know if we're gonna be somewhere, unless you're sick and you just wake up sick with sick kids or, you know.

Deanne:
A lot of times those sick ones, if they call me and they are out sick, then that's usually where I will go and jump in and fill in those spots because it's such short notice.

Megan:
You’re good about that.

Deanne:
Super short notice when they call in and they've got sick kids or they're, they've been up all night.

Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the misconceptions about crossing guards that you hear?

Megan:
A lot of people assume that I work for the school. So they'll come and they'll expect me to know all the school stuff. And I only do for this school because my daughter goes here. But last year I was like, I have no idea. So that's a big misconception. We don't work for the school. We work for the city.

Deanne:
For the police department, we actually work for the police department. Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right. And I actually get that same question sometimes about crossing guards. It's kind of like when you're shopping in a store and people think that you work there.

Megan:
When you're wearing red at Target.

Anthony Godfrey:
Exactly.

Deanne:
Because I think they see it's like a volunteer job. So I think they think that we're just like here to volunteer, which we do. We love it, but it's actually, you know, you actually get paid for the shift that we're here. Each shift is about a 35 to 40 minute shift and we get paid $15 a shift. So it's actually not bad. Like when I started doing it, my daughter went to Welby and one of my friends that worked for South Jordan City, she's like, you seriously should sign up and be a crossing guard. She's like, you are here every morning dropping your daughter off. You're here in the afternoon, picking her up. And I'm like, oh yeah, maybe I should. And so I did. And really you just kind of get paid to take your kid to school.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do there tend to be openings now and then?

Deanne:
We always have openings. We would love to have even a few more subs, you know, just to kind of be able to use a few more, to fill in our spots.

Anthony Godfrey:
How would someone apply if they're interested?

Deanne:
Do, you know what, if they just go on the South Jordan website and you can go down to job applications, or job opportunities I think is what it is. And you can just click right there and it will take you right to it. You actually are applying to be a crossing guard sub, is what the position is. We always have regular spots that if you wanted to do like a regular morning or morning and afternoon or vice versa. So, we kind of like to start them as a sub just to kind of give them a feel for, you know, the different corners. And then we try to do our best to work in like which school is close to their home, where do maybe their kids go. Different things like that. We try and take that into consideration so that it's not, you're driving all over South Jordan to get to your spot when you live on one end and you have to drive clear to the other end.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you have some crossing guards that have just no connection and decide that, you know, I want to drive in and do it?

Deanne:
Yeah. Oh yeah Lorena she doesn't and same with Sarge. Like Sarge actually, you know, he's an older gentleman and he doesn't have kids that actually go there. He doesn't even really live there. He started there because he lived closer, but he's moved. But now he's just like a staple over there. I don't know if he can ever leave. And Lorena too, she just kind of comes in.

Anthony Godfrey:
And once you get the nickname Sarge, you kind of want to keep coming back. I mean you’re in charge.

Deanne:
You kind of have to. He's in charge.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, no question.

Deanne:
He is the man in charge. Like I said, when he was out sick, that corner really did not run the same without him because he knows everybody by name.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.