Grade 5 teacher Heidi Reckziegel just wants her students to be safe.
So she helped organize a program at Margaret Manson Elementary School in Kirkland to help make that happen, and the school got students involved.
Ten students were made part of a safety committee to observe how drivers and pedestrians behave in front of the school.
“We’ve engaged the students of our school to be leaders in this,” Reckziege explains. “They’re actually the ones collecting data along the way.”
They started this week and are doing it every morning for two weeks, looking at things like how often infractions are committed.
The space around the school entrance is tight and things get very busy, particularly in the mornings. “There’s a lot of cars and buses, and students riding their bikes and walking to school,” says Reckziege.
One area of concern is the drop off zone for parents, which is right next to the bus loop.
Reckziege points out that they’d like to make it “more fluid, more efficient, faster and safer because we do have crossovers.”
Principal Stephanie Hérault says it’s also about how some of the drivers and pedestrians behave.
“They don’t think something’s going to happen,” she tells Global News. “So they just stop where they want to stop, park where they want to park, and don’t consider the fact that one wrong mistake could cause someone’s life!”
The students will analyze the data with the committee and figure out what to do to change things. The school is also hoping that the City of Kirkland and the police will work with them.
According to the school, having the students as part of the process helps teach them what not to do. Grade Four student Marco Masuri agrees and says he saw a few infractions.
“We noticed that a lot of parents park where they’re not supposed to,” Masuri said.
But he also says there are things he needs to do to make things safer, like walking instead of running in the drop-off zones.
The students’ involvement in the program is already paying off.
“You see the difference,” Hérault said.
“Already the parents are obviously looking at the students and thinking, ‘oh they’re watching.'”
She says beyond that, the students are learning other skills that help in their development, so in the end, everybody wins.