Eugenia Phillips’ warning pierces the crisp morning air at the corner of West 103rd and South Morgan streets in this South Side neighborhood.
“Watch this car! Watch this car!” she shouts, arms pointing and waving.
Ms. Phillips had seen what others had not: children farther down South Morgan Street who were about to haphazardly cross the road and into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The dark-colored SUV slammed its brakes. The two girls jumped back toward the curb.
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Eugenia Phillips started minding Chicago school crosswalks in 1975. After five decades, she has found that pedestrians need more protection than ever – and that safety and love go hand in hand.
Another tragedy averted on Ms. Phillips’ watch, and her shift as a crossing guard outside Marcus Garvey Elementary School is barely halfway over. She shakes her head and breathes a sigh of relief.
For half a century, Ms. Phillips has been ushering schoolchildren to safety at intersections across the Windy City. That’s 50 years of morning and afternoon shifts. Fifty years of Chicago winters. Fifty years of new student faces. And 50 years of unpredictable motorists in her quest to shield little ones from harm.
And it all started when Ms. Phillips’ brother, a police officer who had encouraged her to become a school crossing guard, died in the line of duty.
“This is something I can do for him,” she recalls, thinking back in 1975.
Now, she is one of 714 crossing guards employed by Chicago Public Schools, the fourth-largest district in the United States. It’s a role that is increasingly vital as law enforcement officials continue to sound the alarm about pedestrian safety. Despite a modest 2.6% decline in pedestrian fatalities during the first half of last year, they remain 48% above levels from 2014, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.
Public education leaders echoed those concerns in a federal survey last year, with more than a third expressing concern about traffic patterns around their schools. Forty-one percent of public schools in the U.S. have crossing guards stationed at nearby intersections.
At the same time, there is growing interest in walking and biking to school around the country, says Nancy Pullen-Seufert, director of the National Center for Safe Routes to School. Every year, schools celebrate National Walk to School Day and National Bike & Roll to School Day, the latter of which is May 7. Some communities, she says, have launched “bike buses” led by an adult who brings cycling students to school.
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“Crossing guards serve a really important role in creating visibility, particularly within school zones, for the presence of students … [while] also serving as an educational provider for students in teaching them about traffic safety rules and proper ways to cross the street,” Ms. Pullen-Seufert says. “Research tells us that students and caregivers report feeling safer in places that have crossing guards.”
Ms. Phillips starts each morning with a prayer inside her car. “Bless that corner,” she asks.
Then she hops out, dons a chartreuse coat, and grabs a hand-held stop sign. Behind her sunglasses, her eyes do the heavy lifting. They’re darting back and forth, watching for a combination of approaching children, cars, and buses.
Ms. Phillips knows the cadence of the morning. Certain students hop off a city bus near her intersection. Others trudge up the sidewalks alone or with siblings, parents, or trusted adults by their side.
One of those regulars is Donald McQuay. His wife runs a day care, so he helps walk children to school. Mr. McQuay says he appreciates Ms. Phillips’ devotion to keeping all students safe, even the stragglers.
“Even after her time is up, she hangs around a bit longer because some of the kids come later,” he says. “I’ll see them all the way down the block, and she’ll just stand here and wait for them to get here so she can cross them.”
On this April morning, the person behind the wheel of a gray SUV flies down West 103rd Street, seemingly oblivious or indifferent to the nearby school and speed limit. Ms. Phillips says this type of careless driving has worsened over the decades. Impatient drivers whip around slower vehicles or run red lights. She ponders whether a lack of love or something else is to blame.
“I don’t know,” she says. “The world is just in chaos.”
Her presence provides an antidote of sorts. She offers warm greetings and sometimes a hug or a coat to a student in need.
“Maybe that’ll help them come in school with a little better love,” she says.
Soon it’s 8:23 a.m., and the school day is already underway inside the brick building.
“All right, slowpokes,” Ms. Phillips hollers to a handful of students meandering down the sidewalk. “Come on, let’s go!”
