Southside School creates safety patrol

    HOULTON — In addition to the lime yellow flag men that have lined South Street for the past six years and the yellow crosswalk markers, drivers who approach Houlton Southside School on Walking Wednesdays will see students manning crosswalks to make sure it’s safe for their classmates to cross the street. The students are members of the school’s newly formed Safety Patrol.
    “As many as 80 cars travel to HSS and Houlton Elementary School one way every day to drop off students,’’ said Wayne Brown, an educational technician at HSS who is the advisor for the patrol. On Walking Wednesdays, scores of children who otherwise might ride to school walk instead.
    “Having extra eyes at the crosswalks will make it that much safer for those students to cross,” he said.
Contributed Photo/Wayne Brown
ON PATROL — A school safety patrol has been formed at Houlton Southside School to help students cross the street safely on Walking Wednesdays. Helping with the program are, front from left, James Tapley, Emma Peterson and Mariah O’Neal; and back, Zack Guiod.
    The School Safety Patrol program was begun by the American Automobile Association in the 1920s. There currently are more than 550,000 patrol members at schools all across the country.
    The AAA School Safety Patrol program has been praised by safety and education groups around the globe for reducing injuries and deaths among 5- to 14-year-olds, the age group most at risk for pedestrian injury. The program also instills students with a sense of responsibility and leadership.
    From 7:30 to 8 a.m. on Walking Wednesdays, two patrol members, each wearing lime yellow bandoliers and holding special flags of the same color will be stationed on both sides of the two crosswalks located on school property, one that crosses South Street and one that crosses the exit road from the elementary school. They will stand at the side of the road and when they feel it is safe for students to cross, they will extend their flags. Patrol members will not step into the road to stop traffic, Brown said. A staff member from HSS also will be posted nearby, he added.
    Members of the patrol are: Zack Guiod, Mariah O’Neal and James Tapley, all sixth graders, and Emma Peterson, a fifth grader.