Here is a power point presentation chronicling the progress of their civic action project. They decided to gather data about the traffic in front of our school and the hazard it presents to students who try to cross the street.
1. The idea to build a crosswalk between Admiral Kidd Park to
the front of Cabrillo High School’s Campus.
By SperosSarantakis, Chris Adams, Miguel Tafolla, Lenora Jamersonand
Ian “Like a Tree” Branch
2. Everyday, 1 out of 3 students of Cabrillo High School cross the
intersection between West Willard Street from Admiral Kidd Park to
the front of Cabrillo High School’s campus.
Everyday, students face the problem of crossing this dangerous
intersection.
Without any safe crossing areas or proper supervision, students lives
are basically in danger with the quantity of on-coming traffic.
Cabrillo staff and faculty may be held accountable to any student that
may be hurt by this unsafe area.
4. Build a crosswalk! (Not by ourselves of course!)
Pros: With a crosswalk, or any other type of safe crossing system, students can safely go
from Admiral Kidd Park to the front of the campus.
When everyone is safe, everybody’s happy!
Cons: With a crosswalk in a certain area, traffic could build up and students may be late
in the mornings and parents may be late for work.
Counter- Argument: What is more important: The safety of a student who wishes to
achieve knowledge in Long Beach’s finest educational institution, or the driver who
doesn’t have the patience to let the student cross the street?
Another plan: Have the school place a crossing guard. (This idea is still currently
debatable to this moment due to the LBUSD policy of placing crossing guards, liability, as
well as pay roll.)
5. We contacted our great and powerful Long Beach Councilman James
Johnson to jump on our case (see enclosed video on next slide!)
After many attempts to contact the elusive Councilman, we finally
managed to reach him and he was willing to support us in our efforts.
He has supported our efforts by bringing up this particular subject in
his council meetings and talking to city officials that could survey the
area of the desired crosswalk.
6.
7. Heck no! We talked to the lovely Ms. Archer, a staff
member at Cabrillo High School, who has guided us as
we progressed through the project.
She had given us ideas of what direction we should go
and gave us the idea of doing a student survey, creating
a petition to have both students, parents and
community members support our plan.
She had also given us updates with our current
progress. (She’s Awesome!)
8.
9. When our group met with to the beautiful Mrs. White,
the Parent Liaison at school, we learned a ton about
parent support!
She told us that we should attend city meetings,
leadership forums and participate in the meetings to
get our ideas out.
She helped out with the Petition that Mrs. Archer set
up (She told us that we needed about 2,000 to 3,000
signatures… CRAZY!)
She also helped to set up a parent meeting and
presentation (To be Announced)
10. Here are some of the results of our student survey:
Question #1: Do you think that the crossway on Willard between Admiral Kidd Park and the
school is dangerous?
Yes= 86.0% No=14.0%
Comments
“yea idoo”
“Some cars do not stop for students to cross through, and some students do not respect the
lights and do not cross at the right timing.”
“ Drivers do not take into consideration of the students walking across the street, making it
dangerous.”
Question #2: Do you cross Willard often?
Daily= 99.0% Once a week= 18.8% Never= 1.0%
Comments
“erry day like swag”
“Around three times a week.”
“from park to school”
11. Question #3: Have you had any trouble with the traffic
when crossing Willard?
Yes= 92.0% No= 8.0%
Comments
“I got hit by a car”
“We need a crossing guard”
“Sometimes”
12. Hopefully we will see a safe crosswalk for the fine
students of Cabrillo High School in the near future.
We will continue to encourage Councilman Johnson to
push the plans of the campus’ desired crosswalk.
We wish to participate in future city meetings and
Leadership Forums and make our voices heard.
13. This country will not be a good place for any of us to
live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to
live in.
— Theodore Roosevelt, American adventurer and 26th
president (1858-1919)
