Use the crosswalk

Dear Editor:This will be my third letter over about 22 years regarding safely walking your kids to and from school. My kids attended Gallatin Elementary and we live just down the street. They never ran across the road. They always used the crosswalk or I waited until I could park on the same side as the school. I am now picking up kindergartners and I am so furious over the lack of judgment adults use when picking up. Mostly it is laziness. The four-way stop with a crosswalk is about 100 feet from the kindergarten pick-up spot. Yet everyday I see them darting across traffic, through parked cars, dragging their kids with them. Some cars come to a screeching stop, others stop for them, which also causes a safety issue. Why do they continually put their children at risk, as well as teaching them this is OK? This seems to me to be child abuse, literally putting them in harms way, in the street, with cars. You wouldn't tell your children to go play in this busy street. Use the crosswalk, that's why it is there, for safety purposes. Unfortunately I know it will take someone getting hit, perhaps the child dead or seriously injured, for them to understand but then it will be too late. Maybe these parents will read this and think twice about next time. Diana Borzi Downey

********** Published: September 27, 2012 - Volume 11 - Issue 24