Yorkton schools prioritize school zone safety with blitz

M.C. Knoll School and St. Michael’s School are taking part in a school zone safety blitz to highlight to drivers the importance of careful driving near schools.

Two schools in Yorkton are reminding drivers about crosswalk safety through a school zone safety blitz.

“This week we’re really focusing on two things, first is no U-turns in a school zone. The second thing is just reminding all of our drivers in schools about crosswalk safety,” explained Steven Boucher, principal at St. Michael’s School.

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From Jan. 20 to 24th, pylons and safety patrol officers will be laid out at M.C. Knoll School and St. Michael’s School – shining light on the importance of crosswalks in school zones.

“With this blitz, the schools came to us and asked for some partnership on this,” shared bylaw and safety officer Nicole Baptist, referring to the city’s donation of pylons for the initiative.

“We thought it was a really great, proactive thing we can do to really promote crosswalk safety and no U-turns in school zones.”

Boucher emphasized that U-turns in any school zone area are prohibited within city limits.

“When you start doing U-turns in a school safety zone, a lot of kids aren’t looking for that,” he expressed.

“If they see you going past them and then they’re thinking, ‘I can walk now,’ but you pull that U-turn and you come back right away, they’re not expecting that so it may startle them, but it may also create an accident.

“We want to really avoid anything that compromises that student safety.”

He added that student safety in the area of Darlington Street has been a top priority.

“It’s a bit of a challenge on this side because we have the curve on Darlington so we really want to make sure that drivers can see the kids can see the drivers,” Boucher stated.

“We want to make sure that we come to a complete stop, but also that we have that two-metre distance from the crosswalk so that there’s a no stopping zone. You shouldn’t be stopping or parking within that zone just so we provide that extra support of [the] students’ safety.”

Despite winter weather, walking to school continues to be common for students and families, according to Baptist.

“Kids are definitely out and about in school zones. We know in the morning and especially after school, there’s a lot of activity happening,” she explained.

“This school zone at M.C. Knoll School and St. Michael’s School is one of our busiest in the community and we really want to try to make that as safe as possible for kids and their families.”