OPINION: Children put at risk during walk to school

Last month, Sept. 15, I delivered a letter with attached photos to District Attorney Sam Bregman’s office. Mayor Tim Keller, County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, City Councilor Nichole Rogers and school board member Heather Benavidez were all cc’d. The letter was about how I had followed Operation Route 66 and how ineffective I thought it had been in providing a safer environment for the children of the International District.

This operation has proved to be just as ineffective as the mayor’s Good Neighbor Agreement back in 2022. The photos were quite graphic, showing students walking and encountering encampments, trash and needles. One photo even shows a needle sticking out of the bottom of a shoe that one of the conductors did not see and stepped on. It is now a month since I delivered that letter, and the only response I have received has been from Barboa.

Two years ago, a Safe Routes to School Committee was developed at Wilson Middle School and Whittier Elementary in response to two surveys. The first survey responses were from parents informing us about their No. 1 concern being transportation. The second survey responses were from students informing us about what they navigate every day just to get to school: being recruited into gangs, being offered drugs, sexually harassed, needles all along the sidewalks, encampments, little blue pills on the ground and frightening dogs that were unleashed.

While the impacts of homelessness on those currently living it are a nightmare, continuing to allow our children to live this life at such young ages is a travesty. The poverty level in this district is higher than the national average, and we know that a child born into poverty has a 13% chance of ever exiting it if they live for seven or more years in that situation, according to research from University of California, Davis.

We should all be ashamed, especially our elected officials who run on a campaign that says they know how to change this old story.

The Safe Routes to School team has raised money, designed the safest routes and hired conductors to walk along with available school staff five days a week. In addition to helping the students safely cross some of the most dangerous streets in our city, the conductors also pick up trash and needles and reroute the students when an encampment blocks their path. It is not the responsibility of school staff, parents, children and conductors to clean the sidewalks and streets of our city, and yet they do it because no one else will.

I wrote my original letter in hopes that Bregman and some of those copied might be willing to sit down with our Safe Routes to School Committee and explore solutions. I did not write this because it is election time for both Bregman and Keller. I wrote it because another school year has started and nothing has changed for these students.