STUDENT SHEPHERD
Crossing guard ensures safety at intersection
The kids didn’t mind the snapping cold on a recent Thursday morning as they skipped a rope tied at one end to the crossing guard’s car, parked as it was in the lot of a veterinary hospital.
Nicole Moan, whom they refer to as “Miss Nicole” or “Crossing Guard Lady,” held the other end of the rope, with a smile on her face and her head capped by a Jack Skellington hat with flapping ears.
It was 8 a.m. near Horace Mann Elementary School, and waves of cars rushed through the intersection of NW 46 and Classen Boulevard. A nearby police officer sat in his patrol car and watched for speeders. The day before, one motorist was caught driving about 60 mph.
“OK kids, it’s time to cross the street,” Moan said.
Like leading the Israelites through the Red Sea, she raised her stop sign, parted six lanes of rush hour traffic and shepherded nine students across the intersection. When the kids safely made the far sidewalk, they burst into sprints on the way to school.
“For Halloween, I was the Statue of Liberty,” Moan said. “I asked the kids ‘who am I?’ and ‘when was I made?’ and ‘who gave me to the United States?’ They loved it.”
For about five years, Moan has been
a fixture at the intersection. She lives in the neighborhood and her daughter, Estrella, a fourth grader at Horace Mann, is the third of her children to attend the school.
An artist by trade — one of her specialties is making ceramic corsets — Moan rules the crosswalk for about an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.
The city does not have a traffic flow count at the intersection. However, a 2015 count at nearby NW 42 and Classen Boulevard showed roughly 1,800 vehicles between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., the volume grew to more than 1,900 vehicles.
Fall enrollment at Horace Mann was about 425 students, and Moan helps dozens of them cross the street. She’s among 50 crossing guards coordinated by the police department, for Oklahoma City Public Schools. The school system budgets for 90 crossing guards.
Police Capt. Bobby Tompkins said there is turnover in the ranks of crossing guards, but “we have some people that do it for years and take pride in it.”
Applicants for the job must be 18 years old, undergo a background check, and pass drug and health screenings. They receive safety training, and instruction on how to legally wield a stop sign. Then, a working crossing guard will observe them in the field.
“The main thing is safety, the safety of the themselves, and the children,” Tompkins said.
‘Make them feel important’
About 3:45 p.m., Moan posted up at NW 46 and Classen Boulevard. She crossed three lanes of southbound traffic, paused at an island, then crossed three lanes of northbound traffic, to the far sidewalk. The students would be there soon.
Brenda Sanchez, the mother of a fourth-grader named Damian, sat in her car and stared across the intersection, looking for her son. Sanchez frets over the busy intersection. She’s thankful for Moan.
“I love her, because she doesn’t rush (the kids),” Sanchez said. “She waits for everybody. She’s amazing, because she has to do two big crossings.”
Moments later, the cries of “Miss Nicole!” went up in the air. Their friendly and fearless crossing guard corralled about 40 of them as cars zipped by. The stop sign hung high. The Jack Skellington hat ears flapped. The traffic stilled. When the kids safely made the near sidewalk, they burst into sprints on the way home.
Some of them don’t have much by way of warm clothing. Moan gives them scarves, hats and gloves. Some people drive by and drop off clothing items for Moan to give to the children.
“I like to make kids happy,” she said. “Sometimes, they have bad days. I try really hard to make them smile, to make them feel important.”