School is back in full force and as much as I appreciate the
teachers and all that they do, there are some students who are
unofficially on staff that do a tremendous thing.
School is back in full force and as much as I appreciate the teachers and all that they do, there are some students who are unofficially on staff that do a tremendous thing. They are the safety patrol kids. Being on safety patrol is a right of passage. It’s a big deal. My son still has a year to go and he’s very eager to join this elite group. To be specific, I’m speaking of the Antonio Del Buono safety patrol kids. I know these kids and they are trained professionals in assisting a safe crossing with their orange vests on and stop signs in hand. But there’s another aspect of safety patrol at Antonio Del Buono and they are the kids that offer “valet service” for parents dropping off their kids in the morning and picking up in the afternoon.
Several of our schools offer this service. The idea is that when you approach the drop off area, rather than having to park your car and slow down traffic to get your child out of the car, a safety patrol student will approach your car, open your door and assist your child out of the car. You are greeted with a smile and upon closing the door, the student will say, “have a nice day.”
This particular gesture really touches me. A few years ago I was going through a terrible time in my life. My marriage was dissolving and my job had become stressful. My father had passed away and I was the last person in my family still remaining in Gilroy. It was a really bad year. But, every morning when I dropped my daughter off at Rod Kelly School, I was greeted with a smile and those thoughtful words, “have a nice day.”
I can’t express how much that meant to me because honestly sometimes it was the nicest thing anyone said to me all day. I looked forward to it each morning. A few years later when my daughter was in junior high and my morning greeting had been forgotten, I acquired my stepchildren. On their first day of school at Antonio Del Buono, I drove through the parent drop off zone and much to my surprise a child opened my door, helped the kids out and wished me a nice day. I fell apart as I drove away thinking about the bittersweet memory of a time when I needed to hear that each morning. It really choked me up. I’m sure those kids had no idea that they made my mornings more bearable back then and I wish I could go back in time and thank them personally. It just goes to show how far a small gesture can go.
I’m so pleased that the schools still offer this service and it serves several purposes. Each school in the district has safety standards, but it seems that from school to school the greeting policy has slight variations.
Mr. Arias, a fourth-grade teacher and member of the Safety Patrol Committee at El Roble School, calls his students that assist at the parent pick up and drop off area “greeters.”
He also informed me that his fifth-grade students teach selected fourth-grade students at the end of the year to prepare them for their duties in the fall. This is followed by special safety training from the Gilroy Police Department which I think is fantastic. I hope that all of the schools can arrange this if it isn’t in place already.
The former principal at Antonio Del Buono, Tammy Gable, personally instructed her staff and students at the beginning of the year. The students are trained in safety procedures and how to properly greet parents. She called them the “valet service.” This service also adds another layer of protection for our kids. ADB hands out large student name cards to be placed in the dash of your car so that when you arrive to pick your child up, the “valet service” can call for that child in advance. How great is that?
The students also learn to recognize parents and the vehicles that their fellow students belong in. I asked her if there had ever been any mishaps, close calls or accidents. She said there hadn’t been any, but she has had to “fire a student” from time to time when she felt that they weren’t paying close enough attention to their duties.
Every aspect of what they do is important and I can’t find a flaw in the system anywhere.
I really think these kids deserve some credit so please be sure to say thank you and tell them what a great job they are doing. They’re not just crossing guards anymore.
Lydia Eden-Irwin and her husband were both raised in Gilroy. They have three children
collectively. Lydia can be reached at
ed*****@ao*.com
.
