MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Were you as shocked as me to hear there's no crossing guard where that Wooddale Middle School 12-year-old walked from one side of Winchester to the other?
That's six lanes of traffic and one of the busiest lanes in Memphis.
Here's what parents had to say:
"We definitely need a crossing guard in this year, every single day, just to protect the kids because some parents aren't able to come and pick their kids from school or they don't catch the bus," parent LaTrina Johnson said.
"When I say they fly down Winchester, they do," parent Toni Wilson said. "Even if they have to get speed bumps in the area of Winchester and Castleman, they've got to do something."
They're absolutely right.
You'll have a hard time convincing me that Green Dot, the company that operates Wooddale Charter School, did the most it could here.
The school's executive director told us Thursday they weren't able to secure a crossing guard. Yeah, that answer isn't good enough.
We counted. While we still don't know her name, we do know that poor seventh-grade girl, with her whole life ahead of her, walked just one block past exactly nine houses before she got to Winchester.
There's no doubt in my mind that intersection is the school's responsibility. Had there been a crossing guard at Winchester and Castleman Wednesday afternoon, that little girl's family would probably not be planning a funeral Thursday night.
There's no excuse. The school needs to fix the problem. Now.