“In three weeks, we were able to get gangs and trouble-makers away from the school area,” community activist Danny Perez said about the Safe Walk program he helped organize for the Escondido Union School District. “We were expecting results, but not so soon.”

The North County Times [Gary Warth] published an article this week on a program being ran by parent volunteers in the Escondido Unified School district. The program is called Safe Walk and is managed completely by volunteers with very little funding [$800 for tshirts]. The police department has done all the training and parents have really stepped up to make this neighborhood and school a safe place for their kids.

All schools could use programs like this. Of course, not all schools have gang problems, but even the best of areas have seedy characters, pedophiles and just general bad influences that hang around areas with easy prey. The one place a child should be safe, is school. And the last thing any child needs to be afraid of, is walking to and from school. 

Although some kids may not walk to school anymore out of sheer laziness, I’d bet most of often, they don’t walk out of fear.  Fear from the parents of what could happen.  Fear from the child over incidents that have taken place or reported news media.  So, although laziness or inconvenience may play a role, fear is probably the single biggest reason for less and less children walking to school these days.

My daughter, PJ, is starting a new elementary this year. I plan on researching more about this program and possibly starting a “safe walk” in my neighborhood. We don’t seem to have too many problems, but I think being proactive is half the battle. If I’m home and I’m going to walk my daughter to school every day anyway, why not keep my eyes open, report issues, build community and police department relationships and look out for each other. Isn’t that what community is all about?