Parents at a Hartford elementary school are calling on the city to do more to keep children safe from drivers.
The María C. Colón Sánchez Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization and the Hartford Deportation Defense Familias Unidas Schools Committee have launched a petition, citing social media reports of crashes near the school.
“In this area, we do not have sufficient safety measures for pedestrians, such as stop signs, clearly marked crosswalks, warning signs, or other mechanisms that help stop or slow down traffic,” the petition reads.
“Our children have the right to get to school safely,” it continues. “Student safety must be a priority for our city, and we must not wait for a serious accident to occur before taking action.”
The groups are calling for a safety evaluation of the roads and sidewalks near the school, measures to reduce vehicle speeds, and an assessment of whether crossing guards are appropriate for the area, among other things.
Yaritza Mogollon heads the school PTO. On Monday afternoon, she and fellow volunteers collected petition signatures at the corner of Park Street and Babcock Street, a block from the school. She said people routinely drive recklessly in the area.
“Our crossing guard last year got run over about a month and a half before school finished,” Mogollon said. (The crossing guard survived but was replaced.)
Mogollon said she had been yelled at by drivers while crossing Park Street in the crosswalk with her children going to and from the school.
“No parent wants to deal with that,” Mogollon said.
Parents had pulled children from afterschool activities, she said, because they don’t want to navigate the sidewalks and crosswalks at certain hours.
Alex Cruz of Cromwell, a teacher at a different school, came out to support the petitioning effort Monday as a concerned community member.
“I heard a lot of students are not signing up for after-school programs [because] there's no safe way for them to get home,” Cruz said. “One of the number one predictors of success – academically, social and emotional success – is participation in afterschool activities, clubs, and sports.”
“So what I would hate to see is for students who want to sign up for basketball or want to sign up for chess club can't do so just because of something that can be prevented,” Cruz said.
City officials said Monday they’d been in touch with the organizers of the petition and had assigned a traffic safety officer and a crossing guard to the area. On Monday afternoon, a crossing guard and uniformed Hartford police officer were present at the intersection.
“We thank the organizers for bringing this to our attention and will continue to work diligently to address pedestrian safety concerns in this school zone and beyond,” said Cristian Corza, a spokesperson for Mayor Arunan Arulampalam.
