Lights leave parents worried about kids’ safety

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Thursday, June 8, 2006 | 7:33 a.m.

It's that time of year when nervous parents gather down the street from Cannon Middle School and wave at passing motorists to slow down.

And Principal Elmer Manzanares grabs a homemade, construction paper "yield" sign taped to a wooden ruler and steps cautiously onto Russell Road to halt the traffic so his young charges can safely cross the street.

This ritual is necessary because, for three years, the county traffic engineering department has been unable to readjust school-crossing warning lights to flash at different times, when the school operates on a half-day schedule.

So, for the four days a year when students leave campus before noon, the warning lights are dark. As a result, parent volunteers take their cautionary positions down the street, flailing their arms in warning to motorists to slow down, and the principal holds a handmade warning sign at the crosswalk.

And later in the day, when the campus is empty and no children are in sight, the crossing sign boldly flashes its warning to perplexed motorists.

A glitch in an old software program makes it difficult to reset the automated lights for the rare days during the academic year when students are let out early.

"It's ridiculous that they can't solve this," said Diana Luizzo, whose daughter will move on to Del Sol High School in August.

Ann LaCarla, president of the Cannon PTA, said she has waged a lonely campaign to get the warning lights changed. She has written letters. She has placed telephone calls. And she has shown up at School District and county public safety meetings to plead her cause.

"We keep thinking if we can draw attention to the issue the problem will get solved, but this has been going on for years," LaCarla said.

A School District representative said Cannon Middle School parents are the only ones to have raised concerns about the lack of warning lights on half-days.

The county may upgrade its automated traffic signal system, but it's a question of funds and priorities, said Herb Arnold, Clark County's chief traffic engineer.

The School District submits its bell times to the county prior to the start of every school year. Not all schools are on the same schedule, and activating lights at a single campus, Arnold said, is not easily accomplished.

Besides, he added, there's no guarantee that motorists will slow down if they see flashing lights at an uncustomary time.

"Most of the drivers are thinking the flashers are simply not functioning because they're coming on in the middle of the day when they never have before," Arnold said. "Not everybody has a kid and realizes these are the last days of school. That's a parent thing, not a driver thing."

On Wednesday Cannon students waited impatiently at the corner of Euclid Avenue and Russell until Manzanares gave the signal to cross.

Melanie Smith, an eighth grader, said she was glad her principal was directing traffic.

"Nobody ever looks where they're going, especially today, everyone's acting crazy because it's the end of school," Melanie said.

Her classmate Christine Ross agreed.

"Just the other day even with the lights flashing, we almost got run over," she said.

But three years of complaining might have finally paid off - on the last day of the school year.

Arnold, the county's traffic safety boss, said he has personally assigned a technician to turn on the flashing lights at Cannon today .