Doing Something About It

If you’re lucky, you’ve known a crossing guard or two in your lifetime.  If you’re very lucky, you’ve known one as passionate as Lea Mortenson.  Mortenson is a crossing guard for West Seattle (formerly High Point) Elementary School, and her job is anything but simple.  In addition to getting children across the street safely, Mortenson’s job has made her a teacher, a community organizer, and an activist. 

For Mortenson, it was a natural step from lifelong childcare provider to crossing guard.  Mortenson has been working with children for decades, from her fist job as a 17-year-old nanny for five children to foster parenting a total of 385 children.  She remembers seeing a crossing guard ad in the newspaper and thinking, “Hey, this would be cool, I could further work with kids.”  Mortenson applied, got the job, and after nine years of guarding around West Seattle Elementary her favorite part of the job is still “Getting the kids across.  Getting them across safe.” 

Mortenson’s commitment to the kids doesn’t stop at the street corner.  Living just a mile and a half from the school where she guards, Mortenson has become a constant in the lives of students and parents in the area.  “I’ve seen some kids who have come back to me and said, ‘Hey, you remember me?’  I say ‘Sure I remember you.’  They come up and give me a big hug.  Another set comes through, and someone says, ‘You didn’t go to my graduation!’  I say, ‘Yes I did, I was there!  I saw you, I was waving at you.’  I do it for the kids.”  For Mortenson, it’s “those morning or afternoon chats” with parents and students that not only make the job worthwhile, but also build a sense of community.

Lasting safety for children also requires education, and Mortenson has seen vast improvement in children’s walking and bicycling behavior since she started giving them pointers.  “It’s very rewarding, the knowledge,” she says.  Mortenson is recognized by children, parents, and drivers alike as an authority on street safety.  “Even the cars that go by, they see me, and right away they’re grabbing for their seatbelts.”

As Mortenson says, guarding has “put a leap in a bound in me to go out and do more in consideration of children at the school.  It’s this extra boom that I’ve got going.  I just hit that age where if stuff needs to be done, let’s get up and do it.  Why put it off for another few years, when there’s more of a risk of kids being hit, or even an elderly person?”  The risk was high recently at the 34^th and Holly turnaround, where potholes aggravated by construction pushed cars far into the gravel walkway where Mortenson crosses children on their way to school.  At first she filled the holes herself, but huge puddles collected and the gravel had to be replaced weekly.  Mortenson used sandbags as a barrier between the road and the walkway, but rain broke the sandbags and cars were getting too close: “That’s when I decided I would do something about it.”  Mortenson did not hesitate to go straight to the Seattle Department of Transportation - “they’re just regular ol’ people like you and me.”  Days later, a construction crew was at the intersection, repaving the potholed area of the turnaround, promising a sidewalk along with as the construction is completed.

When you’re driving, you never know what will happen when you round the next curve in the road.  Likewise, as a pedestrian, you can’t anticipate the behavior of the driver coming around the same bend.  Drivers have the protection of their cars, protection pedestrians can’t fall back on, which is why crossing guards are such a necessary precaution.

Mortenson is living proof that crossing guards are much more than their job description, in ways that keep a community safe and healthy.  Mortenson hopes that the crossing guard program will continue to be supported.  “I want to stay in the job for at least, hopefully, twenty years,” Mortenson says.  “And I think I can do that.”

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