Several changes have been made to our school this year, one of the most controversial being the reinforcement of the rule prohibiting our crossing guard, Leonor Goral, from directing traffic.
Goral’s job now is to stop traffic for walkers to cross the street but it does not include signaling cars to go, confusing and angering many drivers trying to turn off of Rolling Road onto school grounds.
Although the rules have not technically changed, Goral’s limitations have just now been enforced by FCPS. Enforcing these rules upon the crossing guards around our school district has been nothing but an obstacle and a time-waster for students and parents, as well as for Goral.
I believe that Goral has done an admirable job in the past at simultaneously guiding the cars and the crossers into the school. There has never been an incident before where there was a problem between cars on the road with her as our crossing guard.
Unfortunately for all of us, now I see many people giving Goral angry looks as they expect her to stop trafficso that they can turn into the school.
For the first time in the past three years, I have heard multiple cars honking angrily at one another. Drivers who want to turn sometimes wait for well over five minutes to go as the oncoming morning traffic is heavy and relentless for vehicles trying to get onto school grounds.
Parents and students turning off of Rolling Road and into the school are forced to leave their houses earlier and are given little opportunity to turn in the few and far apart lulls in traffic.
This creates a major backup and even redirects parents to drop their children off in the senior parking lot, which annoys seniors trying to navigate their way around parents roving in minivans to get to their spot.
As a walker, I have witnessed Goral’s frustration and feeling of helplessness. Goral has complained to me that there are too many cars turning left into the school as the traffic regularly backs up into the left lane, which in turn holds up walkers like me from crossing and cars from passing.
There are simply too many commuters in the morning for this newly enforced system to function. Neither directing parents through the senior parking lot, nor encouraging them to turn left at the crosswalk avoids the seemingly inevitable backup in the morning. Compared to Goral’s system in the past years, the newly enforced one is far from being as efficient, as time saving, and most importantly, as safe.
Our crossing guard and many others around the County should be given their duties back. Many commuters are forced to create a huge time cushion to get to school; more cars swarm the parking lot than it can even hold and Goralhas been stripped of her rightful duty that she is so good at: directing traffic, easing drivers‘ tempers as they try to arrive on time to school and work.