Safety patrollers keep students safe at school drop off

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The AAA School Safety Patrol program is the world’s largest student-led safety initiative. Through the program, kids across the country work to ensure their fellow students safely make it to school and back.

Evangeline Sous is a morning lieutenant in her AAA School Safety Patrol at West Creek Elementary School in Hunters Creek.

“Usually in school I feel like there’s something missing,” Sous said. “So safety patrolling helps me have more responsibility.”

One of her responsibilities is taking attendance, making sure other safety patrollers are in their positions during what can be the hectic morning drop-off.

The morning drop-off and afternoon pickup can lead to backups at just about any school in our area. Safety patrollers like Sous are in charge of keeping the flow of traffic moving.

“I like to open the door long enough so that they’re in this pavement so that they don’t trip and fall,” Sous said.

Sous was trained by one of the best. Back in May, Reese Tintle was named the Florida and National Safety Patroller of the Year. The honor helped her transition to middle school this school year.

“It made me very confident for what I could succeed in this world,” Tintle said.

AAA reported that more than 679,000 students across the country are members of its safety patrol program.

While they don’t direct traffic, patrollers help students navigate to and from school.

“Their visible presence and structured training have been credited by global safety organizations with reducing pedestrian injuries among children aged 5 to 14, the demographic most at risk,” AAA stated in a news release.

“The safety patrol program is a very integral part of the school,” safety patrol advisor at West Creek Elementary, Keith Johnson, said. “They’re not only used for traffic safety or for the flow of traffic, we also use them when it comes to our delayed dismissals.”

If there’s bad weather when school lets out, it’s the safety patrollers who help connect students to their parents.

At West Creek, they have more applicants than positions to fill.

“They really see it as something that is a valuable part of being in the school,” Johnson said. “They see it as something that gives them responsibility, it gives them a purpose.”

More than 35,000 schools across the country have a School Safety Patrol program.

AAA encourages more elementary schools to enroll to make school zones safer.