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Sam Penrod ReportingA group of volunteer crossing guards are hanging up their crossing flags after finding out they could be held liable if a child was hurt crossing the street.
There is one official crossing guard assigned to Valley View Elementary, but several years ago some parents were worried about a couple of busy intersections near the school, so they started helping students cross the street. Now they've learned they are putting themselves in legal jeopardy.
At Valley View Elementary all of the students who attend live close enough to the school, that the district does not provide any school buses. That means all of the students who attend here, have to either get a ride or walk to and from school.
Eight years ago Becky Barraclough started to help students cross one intersection. She and others have kept it up, even though their own children don't go to the school anymore. But last week they were informed that because they are not under the school or city's jurisdiction in what they are doing, they have no liability protection.
Becky Barraclough, Crossing Guard Volunteer: "This year it has been determined by other sources we could be held liable for the children if anything happened to them while we were helping them cross. It has made a lot of moms get scared and back out so we've dissolved it."
But now that has Barraclough and other parents concerned about the safety of elementary students, because they say that drivers don't pay enough attention to all of the students, and some students cross where they shouldn't.
The volunteers do plan to put orange cones in one of the intersections before and after school, in the hope it will remind drivers to watch out for young children.
