Safety First

Being a crossing guard was Casey's part-time job. Casey was a graduate student at the University of Missouri. She was studying to be a lawyer, having gotten her Bachelor's in Criminal Justice. Casey wanted to save the world. Her plan for her law degree was to use it to free innocent men and women from the oppressive prison system. She knew that was not the most lucrative branch of the lawyer profession, but she had decided to provide representation to underserved communities as her mission in life.

Her position as a crossing guard job allowed her maximum flexibility. She was up early each morning for a 120-minute stint at the corner of 52nd and Barlock Ave. Casey loved the orange bandolier, hat, and gloves. The handheld stop sign that identified her as a crossing guard was almost as tall as she was; Casey stood a towering 5’1”. After the morning shift, Casey went to classes, returning in the afternoon when they let the kids out at 3:00 pm. After that, she was free until the following day, a block of time she put to good use. She was off weekends and holidays. If school was not in session, Casey was not working.

Her kids knew her by her name. “Good morning, Miss Casey,” they would say. “Good morning, John. Have a good day, Twana,” she would respond. The middle school kids were very independent. Casey enjoyed watching the little ones as they walked with their big sisters and brothers to and from school.

Drivers who drove down her street knew Casey tolerated no violations. Once she stepped onto the crosswalk, she expected traffic to stop until the children were safely on the other side of the street. There was no pulling into the crosswalk with her in the middle. Once a driver, who was in a godawful hurry, pulled into her crosswalk. Casey caused a commotion when she would not allow traffic to proceed until he backed up. For him to back up, all the cars behind him needed to back up also. It took a while. Once all the vehicles were where they should be, then and only then did Casey allow the traffic to proceed. Her children would not be run over by stupid drivers trying to make up a minute or two on her watch.

School started at 8 am. Casey worked from 6:30 am to 8:30 am because of the school's free breakfast program and morning sports practice. Few children showed up on her route before 7 am. Most of her kids walked by in the time between 7:40 and 7:55.

There was a dog park right next to her corner. It was nice with a large white fence with separate areas for the large dogs and the small ones. Dog walkers took advantage of Casey's presence in the morning to walk their dogs to the park without having to fight the traffic on the street, so the park was usually busy when she was on duty.

Standing on the corner, she heard shouting and saw children running toward her. Squinting through her glasses, Casey noticed something bearing down on the kids. Holy cow, it was a bull. A big snorting bull. There was no fire coming out of its mouth, but you could see the animal was mad. It was making ”I’m furious” bull sounds, pausing to whip its head back and forth and paw the ground. After its display of aggression, it would take off running again. Soon the bull would reach the children.

She ran toward the children, swinging her big red stop sign back and forth in front of her like a flag. Few people knew it, but bulls don’t charge at the color red. They charge at an object’s movement. Casey shouted, “Here Bull, come on, Bull come on.” The bull saw her. She moved away from the sidewalk, drawing the bull to the center of the street away from the children. Cars stopped at the spectacle, but everyone stayed in their vehicles.

Casey could see the bull change its mind as it turned toward her. She was waving, shouting, and running; the children were running. She was the better target. The children ran past her. Here comes the bull. Casey pushed her glasses up onto her nose. “Let’s go.” she thought. As the bull ran up to her, she quickly stepped behind the end of a car. Bam, the bull ran into the car, backed up, and sought her out again. Casey waved her sign in front of a parked car. Her hat had fallen off. The bull sniffed the hat then stomped it. Bam, she got the bull to run into a second car.

The animal did not seem so mad now. It was no longer running; instead, it was trotting. Behind Casey was the dog park, she opened the gate and backed into the dog park, waving the sign. The bull followed her. Several dogs were in the park. One dog, a border collie, was a herder. As the bull followed Casey into the park, the dog jumped up and nipped at its heels, causing the bull to charge deeper into the park. Casey ran out, closing the gate behind her. The dogs, less the border collie, left the area when the bull ran in. The bull ran around the fenced-in dog park for a few more minutes but finally stopped and lay down. What a day the bull had.

Casey stepped away from the gate and walked over to her corner, where the children were waiting in awe. She pushed her glasses up, smoothed her hair down, pulled her gloves firmly onto her hands, lifted the big red stop sign for the kids, and stepped into the street to do her job. Police cars were racing to her corner. Casey was smiling as the kids made it safely across the street.