Excerpt from the Toronto Star article by Tara Deschamps, published on Friday, November 13, 2015
Grade 6 students push for crosswalk with traffic study, impressing councillor
For the most part, the Grade 6 girls of the Linden School are a well-behaved bunch. Except when they’re crossing Pleasant Blvd. on their way to class.
It’s then that most dart across the street, jaywalking — a step that makes getting to school quicker, they say, because they can use a laneway behind Linden. Quicker maybe, but it also makes the trek more dangerous.
That’s what inspired the girls in teacher Beth Alexander’s class to undertake a traffic study designed to prove that something must be done to make the boulevard near Yonge St. and St. Clair Ave. E. safer.
“There were always more jaywalkers than vehicles, except for one day when there were more vehicles than jaywalkers,” said student Karina August-Schreck, after she and her peers spent nine days in September and October standing by the road at various times, counting traffic.
To the optimistic 11-year-olds, it was all the proof they needed to start pushing for a crosswalk and calling in someone they thought could help: Councillor Josh Matlow.
