Each school day, dozens of students and their parents rely on a crossing guard to walk them west to east across busy, four-lane Armenia Avenue to Oak Grove Elementary School.

But the best way to ensure their safety, authorities say, is to take away the guard and put them on a bus instead.

That doesn’t ease the minds of parents who say children will walk anyway.

“These cars aren’t going to respect the light if there’s not someone holding a sign enforcing it,” said Gia Medina, whose daughter, Selly Medina-Watts, is a second-grader at Oak Grove Elementary.

Other Tampa schools, including Egypt Lake and Mort Elementary, could face similar changes as the Sheriff’s Office completes annual reviews of mid-block crossings, places where pedestrians can cross legally between intersections.

The sheriff’s office has closed mid-block crossings before, along Waters Avenue and other high-traffic areas.

The action sometimes follows incidents where crossing guards are nearly hit by vehicles, said Hillsborough Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Hudson, who oversees the school district’s crossing guards.

Hudson saw an Oak Grove crossing guard nearly hit, he said.

A recent traffic study showed that 2,000 vehicles, traveling 40 mph to 45 mph, pass the school on an average morning. In the afternoon, when school ends, the count is about 1,000 per day.

“We’re going to do the best we can to make sure people get here safely,” said Hudson, who spoke during an open house Thursday night at the school.

New bus stops will be added west of Armenia starting Monday for about 65 students who normally walk to Oak Grove. Fliers announcing the change will be distributed.

District rules generally restrict bus service to students who live more than 2 miles from school, but exceptions are made for safety, officials said.

“Safety is the main point here, safety of the officer, safety of the children,” said Cathy Valdes, the Hillsborough school district’s chief financial officer.

Another concern, said sheriff’s spokesman Larry McKinnon, comes from business owners on the west side of Armenia, who say some parents park in their lots and use the crosswalk to avoid waiting in car lines at school.

“We can’t simply make it convenient for them to drop their kids off to avoid the que line,” McKinnon said.

To help alleviate that problem, the district has purchased a vacant lot adjacent to Oak Grove to expand the school’s parking lot. Landscaping and fencing will be installed.

The crossing guard will remain for about two weeks after the parking lot makeover is completed, Hudson said. The guard will be transferred to another school.

Medina, who does not have a car, walks daughter Selly to school, but a number of children walk by themselves, she said.

“If you’re concerned about the safety,” Medina said in an interview this morning, “why aren’t you doing a red light camera where you can track who is running the red lights and enforce it?”

The crossing guard is needed, Selly added.

“All the kids who walk do need it, too, and I am not playing,” she said. “I’m very serious about this.”

Some parents will not put their kindergarten-aged children on a bus, said Bridgitte Kramer, Oak Grove’s PTA president.

What’s more, parents whose children are in the after-school Head Start program are required to walk their children into school.

“They don’t understand what they are supposed to do because they still have to walk,” she said. “They feel it is up to the city to make them safe.”

The city of Tam[pa installed and maintains the crosswalk and crossing signal on Armenia and plans to leave it in place for those who choose to use it, Hudson said. He will ask the city to adjust the signal’s timer to allow more time to cross.

School officials say about 85 percent of Oak Grove’s students are Hispanic. An interpreter translated during Thursday’s open house. The fliers about new bus stops will be in English and Spanish.

Still, Kramer said, that might not be enough.

“Hispanic families are very protective of their children,” she said. “They want to walk them to school.”

Adrienne Pedersen of News Channel 8 contributed to this report.

ksteele@tampatrib.com (813) 259-7652 sackerman@tampatrib.com (813) 259-7144

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