Superintendent Hite Hits The Streets To Greet School Walk Volunteers
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Amid concerns that students are walking unfamiliar routes to new schools, Philadelphia's schools superintendent took to the streets.
In the first week of the new school year, there were reports that volunteers who were supposed to be guarding the safe walking paths to schools were nowhere to be seen. Superintendent William Hite yesterday walked some students home from the Ethel Allen School in North Philadelphia, saying you couldn't miss the volunteers with their fluorescent green vests.
"You could see them blocks away," Hite said. "So you could actually see what the corridor is, just by looking for their vests."
Anthony Murphy, Executive Director of Town Watch Integrated Services for the City of Philadelphia, says 190 volunteers are on duty citywide at 36 schools. He says they'd like to have more.
"The more you have, the more stationary they can be," Murphy said. "But until then, we will make sure that they're patrolling the safe corridors, so they may not be as visible as the ones who are standing still."
Hite did say the district would be reviewing the streets around McMichael Elementary, after a boy was raped Monday on his way to school.
