BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'Adult school crossing guard program shepherded back to committee,' published June 5. It also references a story about Barrie adding more speed cameras.
I am very disappointed, although not shocked, that Barrie city council did not want to follow through with any discussion or decision on the use of human school guards at our area schools.
However, when it comes to traffic, it has been the take of the Barrie Police Service and Barrie city council to have a hands-off approach to confronting drivers.
They use cameras and speed and noise monitors and let the revenues roll in. They feel it is best to take a photo of the rear licence plate and eventually send the vehicle’s owner a ticket in the mail.
It is time to bring back the human element to traffic control.
Yesterday, I listened to Johnathan Pinto on Up North on CBC Radio One as he was talking about Thunder Bay honouring the crossing guards in that community. The guards’ No. 1 complaint about their responsibility was the number of distracted drivers that could have injured their charges. They have pulled many of our young citizens from the dangers of getting hurt by these errant drivers. No cameras or speed or noise monitors can do that.
These are humans looking after our little ones. They are caring and they are on the front line. Don’t shun them. Don’t think that Thunder Bay is any different from Barrie.
Steve Oaks
Barrie
