Parents, students rally for crossing guard where girl was hurt

This story has been updated.

Five days after a second-grader got hit by a car near an East Germantown corner with no crossing guard, about 30 schoolchildren and parents rallied there this morning to demand that the city hire more crossing guards.

About 120 of 1,037 intersections in the city that have been determined to need crossing-guard protection for public, parochial and charter schools have no guards, according to the crossing guards' union.

Friday's accident occurred near the unguarded intersection of Sprague and Woodlawn streets outside Louis D. Pastorious School. The 8-year-old girlwho was hit by the car was taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, but suffered no serious injuries, said Pastorious Principal Aaron Starke. The driver stopped and was not charged.

Since the accident, parents have volunteered daily to escort students across the intersection.

"We can't do it (alone)," said Veronica Goss, a mother of four who has two children enrolled at Pastorious. "We need the city and the parents to be more involved."

The school, which enrolls 526 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, normally has just one crossing guard at Chelten Avenue and Sprague Street.

This morning, Principal Starke grabbed his bullhorn and joined the parent volunteers to help cross students.

"We need as many resources as possible, crossing guards, security, teachers," Stark said.

Sign-waving second-grader Tionna Travers, 8, agreed: "The cars go zooming past here. We need more crossing guards so the children can be safe."

The protesters also collected parents' signatures on a petition, calling for more crossing guards, to present to city officials.

Crossing guards are trained, hired and paid for by the Police Department.