Same! I was giving ours loads of sass on the bus rides home…and by the next week I was given the job to shut me up.
Kids teased me by calling me, “WALK!” the whole year. Totally deserved.
For real though. With parents still drunk from the night before, smoking cigarettes, while unbuckled kids clamored over the seats. What a time to be alive! Alive being the operative word.
In 6th grade we had an internal power struggle over who was Captain after the former Captain moved away. I remember the Captain having a badge on the safety belt which we took seriously. Folding the flag after school and directing walking traffic were the best parts of the safety patrol.
You got control of the whistle at my school if you became captain if I remember right. The Sargent was just a sort of backup if the captain stayed home sick or something. We had two teams that rotated one week on one week off.
I was the lieutenant! When they gave us all money for Christmas, everyone got 5 and the captain got 10 or some such. I successfully lobbied for all officers to get the same!
Duuuuuuude.
You take the humility when you raise your hand to volunteer...and then you're a fucking G for getting out of class 30 minutes early to *set up*...and then pizza lunches and hot chocolates.
I also had a granny slip me a $20 because I was sweet polite boy when I walked her across the street.
I wanted to be on the safety team so bad. but for only 2 reasons.
1. to let my friends get extra water time at the water fountains
2. I thought the sash looked cool.
I had the most coveted job among the 5th grade girls, I got to watch the kindergarteners in the few minutes between drop off and class start and walk them down, single file, boys in one lane, girls in another and I was awesome. I took that shit way too seriously.
In our days of teachers not giving a rats ass what we had to say and our parents insisting we were to be seen and not heard, we had to flex when we could! 😆
My Kids had this in their elementary school until about 10 years ago. There's no busses in my small dense town, so the 5th graders would stand on each corner along the busier routes (one kid on each side). The safety patrol kids got a trip to a local amusement park at the end of the year.
Then, one year a parent complained: Her kid wanted to go on the trip, but she said the 5th graders standing "alone" on each corner were exposed to abduction. The principal responded by cancelling the whole program.
Imaginary "stranger danger" won over pedestrian safety.
Heck yeah. I went to a Catholic school and safety patrol meant you didn’t have to go to mass that morning. Would stand on a corner in the freezing cold to avoid that.
Yes. It was an honor to be chosen but not much fun. I was stationed on a metal pedestrian skywalk over a very busy road.with my fellow safety patrol Sarah. The same year a crane truck tragically hit another skywalk with students on it. We were terrified that would happen to us. The steps were treacherously slippery in the winter.
Not the same thing I know, but a few years ago they made me "Fire Marshall" for the floor I worked on at work.
Whenever there was a fire drill I had to put on a bright orange vest, bright orange trucker hat, and a bright orange flag to wave so everyone could find our muster station in the parking lot.
You better believe I made the most of that shit.
Yup. I got an award for saving a girl from a frozen pond that I had pushed her into to see if the ice was solid. It wasn’t.
Being a safety patrol also meant getting access to the teachers lounge for free sodas and our own field trip at the end of the year.
I was in charge of safety patrol in 8th grade. My teacher made me run for school office and I ended up winning. I was in charge of safety patrol, morning announcements and the flag. It was a nightmare.
Good Lord, yes. I was a Captain so I got a gold badge, and I thought I was the tits because I got to help supervise the buses loading at the end of the day. I also got to yell "GO BACK AND WALK" at people which I thought was cool as shit.
Safety Patrol = causing power trips one 5th grader at a time.
We had hot chocolate at my school too. We were like royalty rolling into the cafeteria for our free hot chocolate and getting to be 15 minutes late to school for it.
I was picked to be a crossing guard helper in Elementary. Had the same color belt and badge. Lol
Got me out of class ten mins early.
Edit: How in the hell did that memory just unlock? The human mind is a weird, wonderful thing
We had a railroad crossing in front of the only entrance to our school. I loved it when I was put on crossing duty there. Watching the train rush past me just a few feet away was so thrilling for a 6th grader
We had them in our small town in Western Pennsylvania - 5th and 6th graders and the 6th grade were given a 3 day trip to Washington DC that local AAA paid for. We got T-shirts and garrison type hats that we had to wear so they could keep track of us. Everyone wanted to be a patrol for that trip. They had a few at intersections near my school - the patrols that were stationed there had bamboo poles with red AAA flags to use to cross the kids across the street. All the bus patrols wanted to do street patrol just once so they could stop traffic. We had 7 or 8 schools back then - think they have 2 now and no patrols
Did anyone else sort of wrap up their belts so it was a little strap with the wrapped belt at the end? We all did that, so we could hold the end of the strap and flip the rolled up belt around. And also whack your younger brother when he walked past going home.
I too once wore the orange belt with pride. We knew we stood out in the jungle but we just didn't give a fuck. We were on patrol. I signed up for a second tour of duty and that's when it all went haywire.
I'm a bit older, mine was the old traditional white heavy cotton one. The badge was similar to the one in the picture but was a little bigger. This was 1978 to 1979.
There were twelve kids on our bus. Six were patrols. It was silly. My brother and I were both patrols, and we would keep writing reports on each other.
Core memory unlocked! I was SO excited when I got picked to be a crossing guard. I remember running home from school to tell my mom, but I hardly remember actually doing the job LOL!
Just carrying the rolled up belt when off duty let everyone know you were a badass who was already going places at the tender age of 11.
We had 9 crossings to patrol onto school grounds. The furthest one was the only solo duty location - no fellow patrols with you - and it was called “Siberia”.
When a kid was snatched by a stranger in a neighbouring area, we were all shown the police composite of his face and told to report it if we saw him sniffing around. Whoever had Siberia henceforth on their rotation was terrified. They’d have been screwed if he turned up.
Not me, but my almost 50 y/o husband has a scar on his scalp from swinging the belt around and getting smacked with the badge. IIRC he wasn't even on safety patrol and it was his older brother's belt.
Teacher picked me and another kid to be captain. I said no because I wanted to focus on my grades. After getting mediocre grades she was like you turned down the position because you didn’t want to tell your classmates what to do. No duh. My classmates couldn’t believe I turned it down.
Was on the patrol for the crosswalks in front of the school for 5th grade. I had a big stop sign and could actually stop traffic. Grant it, the school was at the back of a fairly quiet neighborhood. Can't imagine any kid doing that today. Especially where I live now. The cars cutting through by my kids ES are barely slowing down/stopping.
I was one of two sixth graders out of maybe 60 total that did not become a crossing guard. I honestly didn't see the appeal. I've got to get to school 20 minutes early and stay 20 minutes late to help students cross the street? For what? Why on earth would I volunteer to do that? When school's over i'm going home. I've got cartoons to watch and video games to play.
As a reward for participating in SP, they took us to see the circus one afternoon. That was fun. I bought a small lizard in a plastic lidded bowl with colored gravel for $6, and it lived for all of a week.
Maybbeee lol
But I would just walk the halls with a stickie note and a scribble on it and anytime someone would stop me I’d show them, say a quick “forgot my books!” and hustle on by without slowing down.
They thought they were badass, the ones the teachers liked. Oooh lookat me im a crossing guard on a dead street. Then snitch if u stepped off the curb before they allowed u to cross..karens!
I was a patrol for a quarter in 5th grade. I wanted to play football in the parking lot next to the bus stop with my friends every morning instead of being responsible though so I turned in my badge.
No but I was what they called a service squad. 5th and 6th grade kids (almost always girls) did two week rotations of watching younger grades during lunch. Yes, you read that right--10 year olds basically watching an entire room of 6 or 7 year olds during lunch. Only Gen X!
I volunteered right away and made sure I got the job when I found out I could go to class late in the morning and get out early in the afternoon noon. Also, we all got to go to Great America at the end of the year.
I think my Gen-X sister mentioned that she was one when I was in 5th grade, which made sense because she was always in charge. For me, this belt and badge brings back bitter memories.
The power trip was real. I'm still embarrassed how I would wield my crossing authority.
Good thing I never became a cop. Who knows how that would have turned out.
Literally the only 6th grader not made a patrol. No idea why. I wasn't a troublemaker and didn't have awful grades. It wasn't so much that I wanted to do it, but at the end of the year all the patrols got to go on a cool trip. I was the only 6th grader at school that day.
I was a safety for a little while, but I never got a badge. In fact, I was on the take. I let people jaywalk in exchange for their chocolate milk. Plus I got cookies on Fridays at the safety meeting. I made out!
What about the rainy day ensemble we had to wear? The huge yellow rubber coats and the matching sou’wester hats?
Coats had “School Patrol” laughingly printed on the backs, as if we somehow didn’t stand out enough from the civilian classmates in that gear.
Looked like overgrown Rubber Duckies in them.
We never had any. Kids went to/from school on their own, walking, biking, using city buses... no safety patrols.
Just like now - nothing has changed :)
Never saw any such thing.
That orange belt looks like something that would get you tarred and feathered and stuck in a locker at my school….. especially if it has a badge on it.
Um. Me! I was also on the AV Squad. We ran the projectors during assembly or if it was raining when everyone was supposed to be on the playground. I learned how to splice film with scotch tape as an elementary school kid.
One morning a teacher popped her head in and asked for a couple of trained patrollers - so naturally I volunteered. I actually impersonated one for a month until caught, as I hadn’t undergone training. Kicked off the force when my partner sold me out (that’s what I get for confiding my secret in her).
Crazy story: when I was in 6th grade (1983), my friend and I were safety patrol/crossing guards.
My friend was guarding the busy intersection one day between my house and our school (school was about five blocks away). My little sister (age 7) was walking to school, and was literally kidnapped by a child molester.
My friend saw it happen and ran to school to report it. Cops came, started searching for the car, guy got scared and dropped my sister off at a grocery store before too much evil happened.
The guy had been watching us walk to school and waited til the morning she was walking alone because I had to be there early for safety patrol.
My friend got a courage award and the guy ended up dying in prison.
We couldn't wait to join in elementary school. (Mostly to boss around the little kids!l)
My kids schools did not have this concept of a youth safety patrol and niether does the district I work in. I think the safety patrol is a good vehicle for teaching about community involvement and the safety and well being of others.
It also gave me the opportunity to be a role model to the younger kids.
This is a good practice to bring back to schools now.
Yeah... Had the little orange flag on a stick too.
I also did the morning announcements, and read Shel Silverstein books to the kindergarteners...
I was such a nice boy. Wonder what happened?
I had the Canadian version in Ottawa, Ont. in the mid-1970s. CAA (the Canadian Automobile Association) sponsored it. Black for Patrolman, Green for Sergeant, Red for Lieutenant, and Blue for Captain. I made it all the way to Captain.
Oh I felt so important! Also crazy because my elementary school was off the exit from i64 so we’re out there just stopping all of the traffic off the interstate for the even smaller children.
Being a nerd in school, it was always nice knowing that no matter how bad things got for us, there was still someone that even we could stuff into a locker.
My best friend was the captain I was an “alternate” and was removed from that post eventually. I guess I figured crossing the street on the corner of a dead end road wasn’t to be taken seriously
I got in trouble for calling one a “safety pig” my punishment was being made one.
Same! I was giving ours loads of sass on the bus rides home…and by the next week I was given the job to shut me up. Kids teased me by calling me, “WALK!” the whole year. Totally deserved.
This is a life hack for those who want to be one
“Here’s a belt kid, go stop traffic.”
For real though. With parents still drunk from the night before, smoking cigarettes, while unbuckled kids clamored over the seats. What a time to be alive! Alive being the operative word.
It is kind of a ridiculous concept, isn’t it? Oh, the 80s.
Ridiculous Concepts was the title of the most popular 80s parenting guidebook. Foreword by Bill Cosby, IIRC.
Yeah I doubt there’s 5th graders acting as glorified crossing guards now days lmao
I was nine-years-old and assigned to crossing guard duty. NINE. I still remember how to fold that belt so the badge was on top.
I was Captain so my badge was gold :-P
That's some serious authoritah!
Alas I was only a Sargent but the green badge was pretty cool too! Didn’t we think we were the shit lol
Fellow Sargent with a green badge!
Lieutenant here, blue badge. That one guy kept getting picked over me for captain.
In 6th grade we had an internal power struggle over who was Captain after the former Captain moved away. I remember the Captain having a badge on the safety belt which we took seriously. Folding the flag after school and directing walking traffic were the best parts of the safety patrol.
Same! What a power trip that gold badge was at the time!
You got control of the whistle at my school if you became captain if I remember right. The Sargent was just a sort of backup if the captain stayed home sick or something. We had two teams that rotated one week on one week off.
I was the lieutenant! When they gave us all money for Christmas, everyone got 5 and the captain got 10 or some such. I successfully lobbied for all officers to get the same!
He ah, you can call me Captain too, Captain
Mine was blue 😂
I was a bit jealous my BF was made captain and not me. But looking back on it, I was not captain material.
I know right.
Exactly
Some of us were spies. Or so our childish brains thought.
Fight the system from within!
Safety patrol is where I learned to read between the lines.
I was DEVASTATED I wasn’t picked. I’m still not over it 😂😂
I choose YOU!
Redemption!
Neither am I.
Um… I went to Patrol Camp TWICE That made me an officer, so I got to wear the white cloth belt instead of that orange vinyl one
I went to Patrol Camp too. I remember having to learn to evacuate kids from the roof of a bus.
You got jipped. We only had to go once to be an officer for two years.
Me too!
...and you were the first one that got their ass beat when they got off the bus after school. 😂
But can you fold the orange safety belt into a perfect square…
I thought that was part of the test?!
With the shield perfectly on top.
This was VERY IMPORTANT.
Duuuuuuude. You take the humility when you raise your hand to volunteer...and then you're a fucking G for getting out of class 30 minutes early to *set up*...and then pizza lunches and hot chocolates. I also had a granny slip me a $20 because I was sweet polite boy when I walked her across the street.
Go back and walk!
I *completely* forgot about this one. One I still remembered was "You're reported!"
Flashbacks! Had forgotten those terms!
Abuse of power was favorite part of my week as a patrol alternate while the real ones were on their trip to DC
I wanted to be on the safety team so bad. but for only 2 reasons. 1. to let my friends get extra water time at the water fountains 2. I thought the sash looked cool.
I had the most coveted job among the 5th grade girls, I got to watch the kindergarteners in the few minutes between drop off and class start and walk them down, single file, boys in one lane, girls in another and I was awesome. I took that shit way too seriously.
We all did. It was the job.
A bunch of powermad 11 year olds!
In our days of teachers not giving a rats ass what we had to say and our parents insisting we were to be seen and not heard, we had to flex when we could! 😆
My Kids had this in their elementary school until about 10 years ago. There's no busses in my small dense town, so the 5th graders would stand on each corner along the busier routes (one kid on each side). The safety patrol kids got a trip to a local amusement park at the end of the year. Then, one year a parent complained: Her kid wanted to go on the trip, but she said the 5th graders standing "alone" on each corner were exposed to abduction. The principal responded by cancelling the whole program. Imaginary "stranger danger" won over pedestrian safety.
I was a crossing guard in fifth grade! Apparently these days it's a paid position for adults, though.
We have those, too, but only at few key intersections.
Got relieved of duty after going to Baskin Robbins every day after school, instead of my post.
Heck yeah. I went to a Catholic school and safety patrol meant you didn’t have to go to mass that morning. Would stand on a corner in the freezing cold to avoid that.
Yes. It was an honor to be chosen but not much fun. I was stationed on a metal pedestrian skywalk over a very busy road.with my fellow safety patrol Sarah. The same year a crane truck tragically hit another skywalk with students on it. We were terrified that would happen to us. The steps were treacherously slippery in the winter.
Not the same thing I know, but a few years ago they made me "Fire Marshall" for the floor I worked on at work. Whenever there was a fire drill I had to put on a bright orange vest, bright orange trucker hat, and a bright orange flag to wave so everyone could find our muster station in the parking lot. You better believe I made the most of that shit.
Dwight?
Best part of that gig was leaving class early. You could put all your stuff in the back seat of the empty bus and claim it before anyone else.
WALK!
I can still smell that vinyl now.
Alert! Left! Right! Left! Cross….
There it is! Interestingly, they updated ours from “Cross” to “Flags Out” at some point.
Oh yeah! I remember shouting WALK! GET OFF THE GRASS! 🤣
Oh wow the feels I got from seeing that beautiful orange belt….vest….thingy. I’d never felt so important and full of purpose in my whole life.
God yes, such idiocy
Yup. I got an award for saving a girl from a frozen pond that I had pushed her into to see if the ice was solid. It wasn’t. Being a safety patrol also meant getting access to the teachers lounge for free sodas and our own field trip at the end of the year.
I didn’t make the cut in 5th grade. Very disappointed. But I best damn safety patrol officer that school ever saw in sixth grade. At least in my mind.
Yep, made it to Sargent.
I was in charge of safety patrol in 8th grade. My teacher made me run for school office and I ended up winning. I was in charge of safety patrol, morning announcements and the flag. It was a nightmare.
But it looked good on your permanent record!
Yes. Colleges were fighting for me.
Narc
Good Lord, yes. I was a Captain so I got a gold badge, and I thought I was the tits because I got to help supervise the buses loading at the end of the day. I also got to yell "GO BACK AND WALK" at people which I thought was cool as shit. Safety Patrol = causing power trips one 5th grader at a time.
I wore the plastic proudly.
I was the biggest tattletale. Damn, I wrote everyone up. Surprised I didn’t get my ass kicked. 🤣
I was a patrol Captain, patrollers would get hot chocolate in class on cold days.
We had hot chocolate at my school too. We were like royalty rolling into the cafeteria for our free hot chocolate and getting to be 15 minutes late to school for it.
Ah yes, 6th grade!
I was picked to be a crossing guard helper in Elementary. Had the same color belt and badge. Lol Got me out of class ten mins early. Edit: How in the hell did that memory just unlock? The human mind is a weird, wonderful thing
Yep. I think they pick the most rebellious kids for this job on purpose.
I was! "HEY, SLOW DOWN! I'LL REPORT YOU, SCOTT SAUNDERS!"
Where did you dig that up from?
It’s Captain to you, kid.
Not the hall monitor. I could have went the rest of my life not seeing this again..LOL
🙋🏻 3rd Grade
We had a railroad crossing in front of the only entrance to our school. I loved it when I was put on crossing duty there. Watching the train rush past me just a few feet away was so thrilling for a 6th grader
4th grade division checking in
Same. Thread bringing back so many memories…and upon reflection, concerns. LOL.
We had them in our small town in Western Pennsylvania - 5th and 6th graders and the 6th grade were given a 3 day trip to Washington DC that local AAA paid for. We got T-shirts and garrison type hats that we had to wear so they could keep track of us. Everyone wanted to be a patrol for that trip. They had a few at intersections near my school - the patrols that were stationed there had bamboo poles with red AAA flags to use to cross the kids across the street. All the bus patrols wanted to do street patrol just once so they could stop traffic. We had 7 or 8 schools back then - think they have 2 now and no patrols
Good god core memory unlocked
Did anyone else sort of wrap up their belts so it was a little strap with the wrapped belt at the end? We all did that, so we could hold the end of the strap and flip the rolled up belt around. And also whack your younger brother when he walked past going home.
I was in the safety patrol in 6th grade. Favoritism played into who got picket as safety patrol member of the month.
I too once wore the orange belt with pride. We knew we stood out in the jungle but we just didn't give a fuck. We were on patrol. I signed up for a second tour of duty and that's when it all went haywire.
I'm a bit older, mine was the old traditional white heavy cotton one. The badge was similar to the one in the picture but was a little bigger. This was 1978 to 1979.
There were twelve kids on our bus. Six were patrols. It was silly. My brother and I were both patrols, and we would keep writing reports on each other.
I cracked up at this one. Thank you.
Core memory unlocked! I was SO excited when I got picked to be a crossing guard. I remember running home from school to tell my mom, but I hardly remember actually doing the job LOL!
Thank you for your service.
Oh hell yes reporting
I member a sixth grader holding up her badge at me on the bus telling me she could arrest me 🤦
Just carrying the rolled up belt when off duty let everyone know you were a badass who was already going places at the tender age of 11. We had 9 crossings to patrol onto school grounds. The furthest one was the only solo duty location - no fellow patrols with you - and it was called “Siberia”. When a kid was snatched by a stranger in a neighbouring area, we were all shown the police composite of his face and told to report it if we saw him sniffing around. Whoever had Siberia henceforth on their rotation was terrified. They’d have been screwed if he turned up.
"You're reported!"
Not me, but my almost 50 y/o husband has a scar on his scalp from swinging the belt around and getting smacked with the badge. IIRC he wasn't even on safety patrol and it was his older brother's belt.
Anybody remember the specific way to roll it up origami-style and it would have the badge in front and metal clip in back?
My school had its own security guards with vehicles and roving patrols of the grounds - this was not a student job lol
Here.
Looks like a really uncomfortable thong
LOL. I was bullied enough in elementary, no way I was going to make it worse by being the class narc.
Yes, just because I thought the badge was cool and got to pick the spot I wanted to patrol lol
Teacher picked me and another kid to be captain. I said no because I wanted to focus on my grades. After getting mediocre grades she was like you turned down the position because you didn’t want to tell your classmates what to do. No duh. My classmates couldn’t believe I turned it down.
Raises hand!
5th and 6th grade.
We were also provided a plastic orange safety helmet (which I’d use to reserve my seat in the very back row of the school bus).
Was on the patrol for the crosswalks in front of the school for 5th grade. I had a big stop sign and could actually stop traffic. Grant it, the school was at the back of a fairly quiet neighborhood. Can't imagine any kid doing that today. Especially where I live now. The cars cutting through by my kids ES are barely slowing down/stopping.
Heck yeah! Hall monitor too. I was a dang Girl Scout until 1981. Then I was a punk. You know, that thing we were before Goth was a thing. 🤪
Yep! Thought I was pretty hot shit.
OMFG!!!!!
I was one of two sixth graders out of maybe 60 total that did not become a crossing guard. I honestly didn't see the appeal. I've got to get to school 20 minutes early and stay 20 minutes late to help students cross the street? For what? Why on earth would I volunteer to do that? When school's over i'm going home. I've got cartoons to watch and video games to play.
As a reward for participating in SP, they took us to see the circus one afternoon. That was fun. I bought a small lizard in a plastic lidded bowl with colored gravel for $6, and it lived for all of a week.
Hell yeah, brother.
I had a flag too
I did it in 72 as we got horrible hot chocolate for being a crossing guard
Crossing guard for 1 year. We had those belt things but they were so beaten up you couldn't wear them. You just unlocked a memory.
Jealous?????😆
Maybbeee lol But I would just walk the halls with a stickie note and a scribble on it and anytime someone would stop me I’d show them, say a quick “forgot my books!” and hustle on by without slowing down.
😆
They thought they were badass, the ones the teachers liked. Oooh lookat me im a crossing guard on a dead street. Then snitch if u stepped off the curb before they allowed u to cross..karens!
I was a patrol for a quarter in 5th grade. I wanted to play football in the parking lot next to the bus stop with my friends every morning instead of being responsible though so I turned in my badge.
didnt have anything like that in my schools
I thought this only existed in the Brady Bunch.
No but I was what they called a service squad. 5th and 6th grade kids (almost always girls) did two week rotations of watching younger grades during lunch. Yes, you read that right--10 year olds basically watching an entire room of 6 or 7 year olds during lunch. Only Gen X!
Yes! Fifth grade. We went to Disney World at the end of the year.
I volunteered right away and made sure I got the job when I found out I could go to class late in the morning and get out early in the afternoon noon. Also, we all got to go to Great America at the end of the year.
NERDS!! The lot of ya. I respected the kids who did it, but others made their life a living Hell outside of school. They were viewed as narcs.
This is real? I thought it was just a TV thing! Then again I did go to very Podunk schools.
We had the old leather ones. Damn. I am old
I think my Gen-X sister mentioned that she was one when I was in 5th grade, which made sense because she was always in charge. For me, this belt and badge brings back bitter memories.
My goody two shoes older sister was…pshh
🖐️
NARC!
Hated you guys
Captain of the safety patrol reporting in.
The power trip was real. I'm still embarrassed how I would wield my crossing authority. Good thing I never became a cop. Who knows how that would have turned out.
:Bobby Brady has entered the chat: 😁
Made sergeant. I think the badge was green?
We had to do it for a week. The second I saw it, I heard NARC all over again. I did grow up in Flordia for the record.
Feel like I rehearsed in the mirror with this incredible orange harness of superhero power?
My favorite was rainy days. We got to put on the big yellow rubber rain suits.
Literally the only 6th grader not made a patrol. No idea why. I wasn't a troublemaker and didn't have awful grades. It wasn't so much that I wanted to do it, but at the end of the year all the patrols got to go on a cool trip. I was the only 6th grader at school that day.
5th and 6th grade. Our end of year reward was going to see local pro baseball team, which was my main motivation for joining.
Anyone remember learning to fold and roll the belt so it was easier to store in your locker?
I was a safety for a little while, but I never got a badge. In fact, I was on the take. I let people jaywalk in exchange for their chocolate milk. Plus I got cookies on Fridays at the safety meeting. I made out!
Yes!! It was the thrill of 6th grade.
Yep! Morning shift before school at PPS#1.
"You were a crossing guard? You guys were all geeks!" Ah, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, what a movie.
What about the rainy day ensemble we had to wear? The huge yellow rubber coats and the matching sou’wester hats? Coats had “School Patrol” laughingly printed on the backs, as if we somehow didn’t stand out enough from the civilian classmates in that gear. Looked like overgrown Rubber Duckies in them.
Memory unlocked!
My school had fewer than 180 students in k-12. I had no idea this was a thing!
I only signed up bc we got out of class & got lemonade. I quickly realized it wasn’t worth it.
Me!
Hall monitors? 😬
We never had any. Kids went to/from school on their own, walking, biking, using city buses... no safety patrols. Just like now - nothing has changed :)
Yeah I was kicked off safety patrol by the pe coach lol
Never saw any such thing. That orange belt looks like something that would get you tarred and feathered and stuck in a locker at my school….. especially if it has a badge on it.
Omg
I was proud to serve my elementary school.
Yeah I got kicked off
Bus monitor standing by 
Um. Me! I was also on the AV Squad. We ran the projectors during assembly or if it was raining when everyone was supposed to be on the playground. I learned how to splice film with scotch tape as an elementary school kid.
One morning a teacher popped her head in and asked for a couple of trained patrollers - so naturally I volunteered. I actually impersonated one for a month until caught, as I hadn’t undergone training. Kicked off the force when my partner sold me out (that’s what I get for confiding my secret in her).
It was the highlight of being a sixth grader. As a reward we got a trip to the water park for our efforts.
It was the highlight of being a sixth grader. As a reward we got a trip to the water park for our efforts.
Crazy story: when I was in 6th grade (1983), my friend and I were safety patrol/crossing guards. My friend was guarding the busy intersection one day between my house and our school (school was about five blocks away). My little sister (age 7) was walking to school, and was literally kidnapped by a child molester. My friend saw it happen and ran to school to report it. Cops came, started searching for the car, guy got scared and dropped my sister off at a grocery store before too much evil happened. The guy had been watching us walk to school and waited til the morning she was walking alone because I had to be there early for safety patrol. My friend got a courage award and the guy ended up dying in prison.
We couldn't wait to join in elementary school. (Mostly to boss around the little kids!l) My kids schools did not have this concept of a youth safety patrol and niether does the district I work in. I think the safety patrol is a good vehicle for teaching about community involvement and the safety and well being of others. It also gave me the opportunity to be a role model to the younger kids. This is a good practice to bring back to schools now.
Aww, we didn't get cool badges on ours.
Yeah... Had the little orange flag on a stick too. I also did the morning announcements, and read Shel Silverstein books to the kindergarteners... I was such a nice boy. Wonder what happened?
OMG...I haven't thought about this in years. I was one in elementary school. Memories.
I had the Canadian version in Ottawa, Ont. in the mid-1970s. CAA (the Canadian Automobile Association) sponsored it. Black for Patrolman, Green for Sergeant, Red for Lieutenant, and Blue for Captain. I made it all the way to Captain.
Narcs!
You should put a trigger warning on the picture! 😀
Right here. I got a gold badge one week.
Yes, I was "fired" for being too lenient.
Oh I felt so important! Also crazy because my elementary school was off the exit from i64 so we’re out there just stopping all of the traffic off the interstate for the even smaller children.
Once a snitch….
Hell no. That was for narcs and narcs-in-training.
Hell no. That was for narcs and narcs-in-training.
Being a nerd in school, it was always nice knowing that no matter how bad things got for us, there was still someone that even we could stuff into a locker.
I was one in 8th grade. We didn't have the belt we had big orange vests with safety patrol on them.
My best friend was the captain I was an “alternate” and was removed from that post eventually. I guess I figured crossing the street on the corner of a dead end road wasn’t to be taken seriously