Moore school crossing guard!
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I'm not sure how but while searching on google I came across the blog about Flo the crossing guard, some people hate her, some love her and so on and so forth. I do not know her because my child went to Moore Elementary last year. I did find it very interesting though because I know there have been many complaints about the crossing guard at Moore also, and I apologize because I do not know his name. He is about 85 years old. . .really, he walks extrememly slow and is hunched over. I had heard that he was not a very nice man. I never had a problem with him and would even tell people when I heard them talking about him, "shame on you for picking on that poor old man, he's just trying to do his job!" The only real contact that I had with him was while walking past he would say something like, "how bout that steelers game." I would exchange a few sentences of friendly chit chat and then be on my way. That all changed when one day I had to drop my son off for school late. He had a doctors appointment so we got to school about 11am. I had just sprained my ankle the day before and was limping a bit so my husband pulled up in front of the school, my son who is in kindergarten and I went into the school. When I came out, the crossing guard was talking to my husband in a very loud voice and authoritative tone about why he cannot stop in front of the school. Fine. Unfortunately we had left my sons back pack at home, so we drove home to get it and had to come back and drop it off. This time, my husband dropped me off in front of the school and then drove around the block to park behind the cones where he is supposed to. When he saw me come out, he pulled up, I got in and we started driving. At the corner, where the guard was sitting in a little folding chair. He excitedly flagged us down, we stopped and rolled down the window and that is when he proceeded to scream at us, saying "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ENGLISH!!! I TOLD YOU NOT TO PARK THERE!! WHAT ARE YOU STUPID OR SOMETHING!! HOW DO I KNOW YOUR NOT TERRORISTS!!" He went on and on and I was getting very upset, my husband who is much more cool headed than I just kept saying, "Ok, sorry about that sir." And the crossing guard would bark back, "YOUR NOT SORRY! IF YOU WERE, YOU WOULD HAVE LISTENED THE FIRST TIME!!" I just told my husband to roll up the window and drive away because the guard just would not stop yelling. I could not believe how nasty and relentless he was, and this man is working with children. I am all for him doing his job, but this was just unreasonable and uncalled for, especially since he sees me every day picking up my child! Where does the borough find these people? I could imagine treating people like this and I do not believe he has the right or the authority to treat anyone like this. I told my childs teacher about the incident and she went on to tell me about how sooo many people have complained about this guard and yet he still works here. I guess Brentwood borough doesn't really care what we tax payers think about the people they have watching our children. Anyone else have problems with this guard?
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I know exactly what you are saying. I teach the kids in my class to be respectful to others...and what better way than by showing them with my own behavior. I wish others, especially those working with children, would do the same!
All of this complaining about the crossing guards. Everyone takes the time to complain on the blogs.
If you have issues with the way things are, there are borough meetings twice a month that you can go to and voice your opinion. It's a real shame that not alot of parents take the time to come. I know everyone is busy, I am busy with two children myself. You have to make a committment and go to the meetings. It would be great to see some more parents show up and get involved in our community.
Lifelong,
I have a question for you. When are the borough meetings? They seem to change every so often, and I am not sure if the borough web site is updated. The site now says that the Agenda Meetings are the second Tuesday of the month, and the Council Meetings are the third. Is this correct? I thought they used to be the 2nd and the 4th. Maybe if our Borough updated our web site more often, people might be more informed as to when the meetings are. Right now, we can't even read the minutes from April, May, or June. If people could read what goes on at these meetings, they migth be more inclined to show up. I agree with your previous comments that people should go to both Agenda and Council meetings, but not everybody can steal that much time away from their schedule and family. If nothing else, we should all make it to at least several of both each year though. Maybe if we all got more involved, we wouldn't have the constant arguing that goes on this web site and in the borough. Keep up the good posts. You always bring up several good and thought provoking points. People like you make this site worth reading.
PS: Try Tylenol PM - You need to get some sleep sometime.
MovinOnUp,
The council meeting for July is on the 24th at 7:30 p.m. The agenda meetings are the second Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. The regular meetings are the fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. The agenda meetings are short usually forty five minutes. The regular meetings are longer. Hope to see you there!!!!
Hard to complain about people doing a job that no one else wants to do. The last time I talked to one of the crossing guards, she explained that they only get paid for the hours they are actually on the corner. The working hours are so split up over the day. What else can you do for the couple hours in the morning until 11am, and then again in the afternoon until 3pm? There's no other part-time job that they can squeeze into those slots. So basically - no one wants the job. It's next to impossible to get people to work as crossing guards due to the low pay and how the hours are split out over the course of a day. You can't possibly blame the Borough. They are lucky to find anyone. So if the person is crabby - so what! Thank goodness there are energetic persons (retired or younger) who want to do the job. As long as they keep the kids safe - that's all that matters.
It's good to complain to the borough when an incident happens with a crossing guard. Their boss should talk to them about it when it happens.
I can only speak of the guards at Moore School since I've personally witnessed the dangers they have to put up with. I've seen crazed parents who are late to drop their kids off, practically mow down the crossing guard, as well as other children, as they tear into the parking lot. I've seen an Access van driver get p***ed off at the guard because Dalewood is only 1 way during school hours, and swear at the guard, and blow off the stop sign. I've seen parents drive on the sidewalk to get around slower traffic, because THEIR kid might evaporate, if they aren't standing outside when their child emerges from the school.
I also know that same elderly crossing guard told a child to lay down the handgun which the child had just found under a bush near the school 2 years ago. That's his job - keeping our kids safe - and he deserved a medal for that.
This past winter he fell on the ice and broke his nose - but he wanted to keep on working to be sure the kids were safe.
I see some parents handing that crossing guard a cup of McD's coffee on cold mornings too. That's nice.
Hard to complain about people doing a job that no one else wants to do. The last time I talked to one of the crossing guards, she explained that they only get paid for the hours they are actually on the corner. The working hours are so split up over the day. What else can you do for the couple hours in the morning until 11am, and then again in the afternoon until 3pm? There's no other part-time job that they can squeeze into those slots. So basically - no one wants the job. It's next to impossible to get people to work as crossing guards due to the low pay and how the hours are split out over the course of a day. You can't possibly blame the Borough. They are lucky to find anyone. So if the person is crabby - so what! Thank goodness there are energetic persons (retired or younger) who want to do the job. As long as they keep the kids safe - that's all that matters.
It's good to complain to the borough when an incident happens with a crossing guard. Their boss should talk to them about it when it happens.
I can only speak of the guards at Moore School since I've personally witnessed the dangers they have to put up with. I've seen crazed parents who are late to drop their kids off, practically mow down the crossing guard, as well as other children, as they tear into the parking lot. I've seen an Access van driver get p***ed off at the guard because Dalewood is only 1 way during school hours, and swear at the guard, and blow off the stop sign. I've seen parents drive on the sidewalk to get around slower traffic, because THEIR kid might evaporate, if they aren't standing outside when their child emerges from the school.
I also know that same elderly crossing guard told a child to lay down the handgun which the child had just found under a bush near the school 2 years ago. That's his job - keeping our kids safe - and he deserved a medal for that.
This past winter he fell on the ice and broke his nose - but he wanted to keep on working to be sure the kids were safe.
I see some parents handing that crossing guard a cup of McD's coffee on cold mornings too. That's nice.
In response to the comment left by Towhee. So if someone doesn't make much money, It is OK for them to be mean and nasty? If they are crabby, so what? If they are crabby and hate there job, they maybe shouldn't be doing that particular job. I work at a hospital and I would like to see how you would feel if you were in the hospital and someone were mean and nasty to you and then have them say, "Oh well, I'm doing my job and thats all that matters because I don't get paid enough to be nice!" That would be ridiculous in my opinion, and that is no different than what happened with the guard.
Finally other parents demanding respect from the employees who work for Brentwood. We are taxpayers and it is our right to complain about someone not being respectful. The male crossing guard was not yelling out (at this particular incident) to save a child's life---he was yelling at a parent and did not take the time to find out the whole situation before flying off the handle. It is time parents take a stand and demand crossing guards be professional- after all, as marie says "they did choose to work with kids"!
And to the person who keeps saying no one else wants the job of a crossing guard - I am very sure there are other people who would gladly do the job of a crossing guard! Pittsburgh has a high enough rate of unemployment that another person could do a better job than the crabby old crossing guards we currently have in place!
So are you saying that any employee of Brentwood who speaks harshly or yells at either a parent or a child of this borough should find another job?
If that's the case their are going to be alot of teachers, coaches, and policemen that are going to be out of jobs.
I would rather have crabby people yelling at my child or myself for not following the rules over someone, anyone being put in harms way. And I would rather have a crabby old teacher yelling at my kid for misbeahving in school over someone that would rather "sleep with them".
Maybe everyone offended by the "CRABBY OLD PEOPLE" should grow tougher skin, I'm sure the "CRABBY OLD PEOPLE" have considering they have to deal with people like you.
First of all no one every called him a "CRABBY OLD PERSON" as you say. Besides, he is beyond crabby, he is MEAN. Secondly, I don't know about you but I always treat people with respect and kindness and that is how I had always treated this crossing guard and will continue to do so. However, I would expect to be treated in the same manner. This particular incident wasn't a matter of anyone being in harms way. . .the children were in the school, and he had just seen me take my son in to the school! It is not ok for someone in that position to act this way. And believe me, if my sons teacher, coach or any other person spoke to me that way. . .I wouldn't tolerate that either. It is not about having a thick skin, it is about school personell not being mean, nasty, disrespectful, and innapropriate, which he was! Being old and having a low paying job where you have to deal with bratty kids and sometimes rude (which I was not)parents is not an excuse. It could be a good excuse to retire maybe?
The "Crabby old person" remark was directed at Diane13 if you read her response she most certainly did call him a "Crabby old Person".
I to treat people with respect and expect to be treated the same. I understand 100% that no one was in harms way when you dropped off you child however, there are rules and when rules are broken one gets yelled at. I know first hand that when I broke the rules at home or out and about I was corrected rather harshly, and now that I'm an adult I know not to break the rules and if I do there are consiquences.
I hope you child never plays sports because I can guarantee you this....there will come a time when he/she is spoken to harshly by a coach in the heat of battle and without thick skin he/she will have their feeiling hurt. And should you go to a sporting event and watch....there's alot of inappropriate talk in that stands from parents and if you don't get thick skin...you too will have hurt feelings.
The whole matter is this....Rules are Rules and if they are broken one deserves to be yelled at and not patted on the back.
It seems that you have not really read the blog that I originally wrote. Or perhaps I didn't make it very clear exactly what happened. There is a difference between being yelled at and the way that the crossing guard acted by screaming 3 inches from my husbands face, spitting everywhere, not stopping to take a breath. I almost thought he might hit someone and in fact he never did stop screaming! We had to drive away!
As far as you trying to say that you hope my child never plays a sport. That was just rude and childish. And since you brought it up, he has played sports with no problems.
And again, it is not about feelings being hurt. Believe me, my feelings were not hurt. I was furious. . .that is not the same as feelings being hurt. I am all for rules being enforced, I'm not into being screamed at relentlessly by a crossing guard on a power trip.
I have to agree with you. People who work in the public eye should always watch their "P's" and "Q's". They seem to forget that even though they are working they are also representing the borough. Especially at the job he has. Whether anyone else saw the incident or not; children could have been present and then what...the children would think that is okay to act like that. I was raised in a strict household with rules and I think a lot of children today lack discipline and consequenses. With people like that representing authority figures not wonder children today act like they do. That situation could have been very easily handled in a different manor---Professionally!!!!