Police getting cross with absent guards

PHOTOGRAPHER: Meredith Kaiser

A crossing guard sits in his car at the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Lakewood Avenue in Schenectady on Tuesday.

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In the rain and snow, when driving conditions are at their worst and visibility is obstructed, some city crossing guards are sitting in their cars while children cross busy streets by themselves, police say.

Others aren’t bothering to show up at all, but don’t tell police that they’re taking the day off, leaving the intersections unstaffed. The situation has gotten so out of hand that police recently sent out a letter telling all guards to do their jobs — or else.

The police department supervises the intersections with uniformed officers when guards call in. It also hires the guards, and it can fire them, as the department threatened in the letter.

Police detailed the worsening reliability problems and warned the guards that they risk “termination” if they can’t be trusted to show up on time, get out of their cars, and cross the children safely.

But the letter didn’t seem to have much effect on one guard, who sat in his car Tuesday to avoid a gentle rain.

“I’m not going to stand out in the rain, would you?” said Chester Armour, who guards the busy intersection of Eastern Avenue and Lakewood Avenue. He said he had been a guard for 15 years.

He didn’t get out as two middle school children ran across the street, but did cross several younger children while a Daily Gazette photographer took photos.

“When the kids come, I get out,” he said. “The big ones tell me to go. I have a lot of trouble with them. So I only cross the little ones.”

He parked his car at the intersection, just outside the traffic lanes. He said he didn’t need to stand at the corner because he would be able to see children coming.

“I can see in all directions,” he said.

CAREFUL APPROACH

But another crossing guard, Donna Riggi, said the children who most need crossing guards are the ones who won’t wait for someone to get out of their car. Children as young as 6 years old walk home from school each day.

“You’ve got kids, they just run across,” said Riggi, who helps children cross Campbell Avenue. “In a car, no, you can’t do it. You’ve got to get out of the car. How do you see traffic?”

Crossing guards and school officials said guards who stand at their posts are also easily seen from a distance, so children know where they can cross safely. The guard’s presence also serves as a warning for drivers to slow down.

“The crossing guards are critical,” said city school district spokeswoman Karen Corona. “It’s extremely important they’re on the job, where they’re supposed to be, alert, and teaching kids to cross the street.”

The city spends roughly $115,000 each year on its crossing guards, paying them more than a dollar above minimum wage to help children cross the street every morning and afternoon. Guards must stand at their posts for an hour at a time, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

But the $8.65-an-hour rate may not be enough. Many people just won’t work, at least in bad weather, for that salary, police said.

MANY NO-SHOWS

“We frequently have no-shows,” said police spokesman Lt. Brian Kilcullen.

Every day, at least four of the city’s 33 crossing guards call in, forcing police officers and parking attendants to take their place. But it’s the ones who don’t call in that have the police worried.

They’re investigating reports that guards are leaving intersections unattended or sitting in their cars, particularly on bad-weather days, Kilcullen said.

The city’s traffic division sergeant is now checking up on the guards to make sure they’re working.

“He’s looking at it more closely right now because of the reports,” Kilcullen said.

It’s not news to the police that some guards don’t want to stand outside for an hour in cold, wet weather. But the number of no-shows has increased dramatically, Kilcullen said. They received 10 call-ins on the most recent snowy morning.

“It was inclement weather and we were short about a third of the crossing guards,” Kilcullen said.

Some snowy days are tricky because school is delayed, forcing guards to reschedule so they can watch the street when school opens. But even on non-delay days, guards call in if it’s snowing out, Kilcullen said.

“You do tend to see it more in the winter,” he said.

City Council members said they may raise the guards’ pay rate in the next budget to address the problem. That raise, if approved, wouldn’t take effect until January.