Roxbury Chief Explains School Crossing Guard Reduction

ROXBURY, NJ – Roxbury Police Chief Dean Adone on Tuesday explained in more detail his recent decision to remove five school crossing guard sites, and add one new one, when the new school year begins.

Speaking at the Roxbury Mayor and Council meeting, the chief – acknowledging that there has been “some discourse” related to his decision – said the net decommissioning of four crossing guards will not create a safety issue for students.

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He said the move was based on a 3-month-long analysis of the crossing guard situation in Roxbury, a study that found no real need for guards at five sites but also determined a crossing guard is required on Eyland Avenue in front of Eisenhower Middle School (EMS).

“At least for the entirety of my career, I believe we've had nine permanent crossing guard posts in town,” Adone told the council. “They haven't changed. They haven’t really been evaluated in my entire career to the best of my knowledge.”

He said he believed the reason the crossing guard situation was never studied was that, up until recently, the police department never had a problem finding people to man the posts, along with alternates to serve as back-ups.

However, COVID-19 changed that, Adone said.

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“After COVID, a lot of the people who were doing it for a long period of time didn't come back,” he said. “For whatever reason, the position has been harder to recruit for, and fill, in the last handful of years.”

In the past school year, there were nine crossing guards and no alternates, according to Adone. “Unfortunately, a lot of them are older. They have some health issues, and they often were out for periods of time.”

This forced Adone to assign regular police officers to work the school crossings at least 473 times, he said.

'Rarely Used'

Although he said doing so was often a struggle, the chief insisted the staffing problem was not his main motivation for deciding to remove the five guard posts. He said the officers manning those posts noticed that they weren’t really doing much.

“That just made a lot of the officers that were sitting there constantly aware of the post and obviously (they) had a more of a first-hand relationship with them than we ever had in the past because they were sitting there over and over again, a lot of times at the same places, and witnessing that many of the posts were rarely used,” he told the council.

He also said that “in almost every case” the children at the sites by elementary schools were accompanied by parents.

Adone stressed that the crossing guard analysis was based on New Jersey Safe Zone Guidelines, published by the state Department of Transportation, which takes into account sight distance, traffic gaps and vehicle speeds. “We didn’t just go and eliminate anything,” he said. “We did our due diligence.”

He said it was clear that a crossing guard was needed more in front of EMS than at West Circuit Drive, a site where “there was literally one kid” that crossed.

“The school (EMS) had been asking for someone at the exit to Eisenhower by the lake there, which is heavily traveled in the afternoon by the Eisenhower kids,” Adone said. “My kid was one of them last year. There’s a lot of kids that leave school there and they go out to the lake.”

Adone stressed the crossing guard alterations aren’t a decision he “came to lightly” and he said he understands “there’s some discontent over it.” But he said he is “comfortable” with the change.

There will no longer be crossing guards at Toby Drive/Ridge Road, Cornhollow Road/Hawthorne Drive, Pleasant Hill Road in front of Kennedy School, Ridge Road at the rear of Kennedy School and Eyland Avenue/West Circuit Drive.

Related TAPinto Roxbury coverage:

Five School Crosswalks to Lose Guards in Roxbury

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