Springfield can do better in helping kids walk to school safely

A school safety plan is only as good as it is implemented. As two Sunday News-Leader stories showed, the Springfield school district has been — if not asleep — then certainly napping in putting its walking-to-school program to use. . . .

- To find that middle schools don't even get traffic maps for their areas, and the manual says middle schoolers should be treated as adults. Sixth-graders?

- That out of all the families with children in Springfield elementary school, only a group of parents at Weaver Elementary form a "walking school bus" over two routes to guide the kids and make sure it's safe to cross streets when they do. Springfield Police officer Angela Burgess spent several months helping the Weaver parent team put the program together. She and a parent spoke to a council of other schools' PTAs. Burgess says they never heard from any of them.

- That many busy intersections that kids must cross don't have crossing guards at all. . . . .