SAN ANTONIO POLICE DEPARTMENT SCHOOL SAFETY PROGRAM

The San Antonio Police Department has always been especially concerned with the safety of school children, particularly during the times when elementary school children are crossing busy streets on their way to or from school. In addition to Patrol Officers monitoring the crossings and streets around the schools, the Department also cooperates with individual schools in two special programs to ensure safety at school crossings: the "Crossing Guard Program" (known as Mama Patrols during the program's early years) and the "School Safety Patrols".

CROSSING GUARDS : In 1952 San Antonio initiated its first program of school crossing guards. Popularly known by 1953 as "Mama Patrols", the program recruited women to work an hour or so in the morning and in the afternoon, when elementary school children were on their way to or from school. Dressed in dark skirt, white blouse, and a safety belt, and carrying a large sign, the Mama Patrol members stopped traffic at school crossings and assured the safety of the children. PHOTOS: TOP - Crossing Guards ("Mama Patrol") at work during 1954. BOTTOM - 1954 photo of 115 Crosing Guards.

SCHOOL SAFETY PATROLS : When the Crossing Guard Program was started in 1952, it augmented an existing program of "School Safety Patrols", made up of students who had been trained to supervise the safety of their classmates. San Antonio started its student School Safety Patrol Program in 1939, but the program had actually originated in 1920, in St. Paul, MN, started by Sister M. Carmela, a teacher at St. Paul's Cathedral School.

"School Crossing Guards", now made up of both male and female members, are part of the School Safety Detail within the Support Services Division of the San Antonio Police Department. Crossing Guards are part-time civilian employees of SAPD, and most work an average of 2 hours a day, on school days. New Crossing Guards receive training from the School Crossing Guard Supervisor in proper and effective ways to control both the traffic and the school children. SAPD furnishes the uniforms, vests and other equipment, including cellular phones, and the guards furnish their own transportation to their assigned sites.
Today there are more than 260 women and men who make up the SAPD Crossing Guard Program, and they are proud to point out that in their 47-year-history, not one fatality of a child has occurred at a school crossing while a Crossing Guard was on duty.

Crossing Guard work often begins in the dark, before the sun is fully up. A patrol car is often close-by.

Students in the School Safety Patrol Program outnumber the Crossing Guards about 50 to one. There are more than 200 schools participating in the School Safety Program, with nearly 10,000 student patrol members. School Safety Patrol participants receive training from a School Safety Detail police officer, and the SAPD provides them with badges, belts and signs, in addition to an end-of-the-year rally.

School Safety Patrol members standing at attention before assuming their assigned posts at the crossings. The School Safety Patrol Program is an excellent way to teach students safe habits and practices, and to also encourage them to help other students.