By Callum Ludwig
Staffing issues have led to children and primary school staff being left in a dangerous situation
Recently, including the whole of this week, Gladysdale Primary School’s crossing has been left unmanned as their regular crossing guard has been required elsewhere.
Principal Tara Jenner said Gladysdale PS is left without a replacement.
“At the moment, our regular guard is at Launching Place Primary School, protecting kids on the highway which is of course, very important,” she said.
“But when someone is sick or goes on holiday, no one is replacing ours and we have cars speed through at all hours of the day and particularly at 9am and 3.30pm.”
Teachers at Gladysdale PS are currently left to fill the void, just to ensure kids can safely cross the road, which they are not technically allowed to do.
Ms Jenner said she couldn’t tolerate letting kids cross the road by themselves.
“We’ve had to alert people and ask them to slow down on our Facebook, and we’re trying to get kids across as efficiently and as effectively as possible,” she said.
“But people need to remember, this is a school zone, we are in the 40km/h zone, and people need to slow down well before the crossing. We’ve had oversize vehicles including log trucks come through at 3.20pm, when we finish school going much faster than 40km/h because they think they are just on a country road.”
The lack of crossing guards is due to a shortage of available staff from recruitment agency HOBAN and Yarra Ranges Council.
Ms Jenner encouraged anyone interested in helping out to get involved.
“If they’re interested in getting involved and helping out their community ring the Yarra Ranges Council because they are positions available, and not only do you get to help out the community but get paid for it as well,” she said.
“Crossing guards are extremely important for keeping kids safe with trucks and buses on the roads, some of our children are very scared and hesitant to cross the road and some don’t quite understand road safety yet. We do not want something horrible to happen outside our school.”
Parents are encouraged to tell children to wait at the crossing for a teacher to cross them, or to ask a teacher for help.
Anyone interested in a Crossing Supervisor position can call HOBAN recruitment on 9325 3200.
