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Details to know

• What is the CAA School Safety Patrol program?
• Who are safety patrollers and what do they do?
• A history of accomplishments and value
• Start a program in your community

What is the CAA School Safety Patrol program?

The CAA School Safety Patrol program is a joint partnership between CAA, the police, school boards, teachers, parents and more than 25,000 dedicated student volunteers who give their time to ensure their peers remain safe at road crossings and on school buses in South Central Ontario.

• The program has been operating for 80 years, getting children to and from school safely.
• More than 55 Ontario police services partner with CAA to deliver a top-notch School Safety Patroller training program.
• More than 25,000 elementary student volunteers make the program possible.
• The CAA School Safety Patrol program operates at more than 800 schools across Ontario.
• Patrollers dedicate 3.45 million volunteer hours each year to keep their communities safe.

Who are safety patrollers and what do they do?

Safety patrollers are elementary student volunteers who have been trained by local police services to use potentially life-saving skills while on duty.

You can easily spot patrollers in your community by the lime-green vests they wear. In fact, only on-duty foot and bus patrollers can wear these vests, which are easily recognizable to students, motorists and pedestrians.

There are two types of School Safety Patrollers:

Bus patrollers help the bus operator get passengers to their destinations in a safe and orderly fashion. The patroller does this by encouraging responsible behavior among students while riding the bus and by controlling the embarking and disembarking of students in accordance with the bus operator's instruction.

Foot patrollers monitor school crossings on roads around schools. These safety specialists keep students from entering the roadway when it is unsafe to cross and they remind students of safe crossing rules. Unlike crossing guards, patrollers don't stop or direct traffic.

A history of accomplishments and value

The School Safety Patrol program was developed during the 1920's when the popularity of the automobile was increasing and there was a spike in the number of vehicle related collisions involving pedestrians aged 4 to 14.

The program's aim is to protect and educate elementary school children from becoming injured in traffic by employing safe crossing practices.

Due to increased foot and vehicle traffic around school zones, the program is more important than ever to ensure that kids are safely getting to and from school.

Since the program's inception, there have been more than 80 documented cases of patrollers saving others (mostly fellow students) from serious injury and death.

Kids like Shpend Bytyqi and Devdutt Kamath prevented a grade one student from being run-over by a car. Elizabeth Blenkarn, a grade 5 student, administered first aid to a kindergartener who hit his head during a bus ride. Matthew Sexton and Amber Visser used their skills to save their bus driver after she suffered an allergic reaction while at the wheel.

Start a program in your community

The School Safety Patrol program is used by over 800 schools across Ontario and is recognized and endorsed by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and the Ontario School Bus Association. To start a program in your area, simply contact the community service officer of your local police service and ask about implementing the program or contact CAA for more information.