The street of school zones are supposed to look distinguishably different from regular streets. Campus safety is a priority to cities in their planning of streets and roads. Schools are supposed to be covered with special speed signs, speed bumps and most importantly, crosswalks.

Each morning more than 1,000 students flock to school, leaving the three parking entrances to campus heavily congested. The traffic causes parents to sometimes disobey traffic laws and signs in a rush to get students dropped off. Also, the only street surrounding the campus with sufficient traffic signs is Brookside. On the streets McGaw and Rosemarie, there is one school zone speed limit sign that one can only see coming east on Rosemarie. There are no crosswalks in the middle of the street, so students are dropped off and tend to jaywalk to the opposite side of the street.

One reason for the lack of traffic direction could be because the student parking lot on Rosemarie is new. Before its construction, the now student parking lot was just an entrance where a couple of teachers could park. Now that it is a parking lot and is easier to access, more students are being dropped off on Rosemarie which leads to major traffic in the area.

Also, the newly installed sidewalks on Brookside lack any indication of a school zone whatsoever. The thought of putting them in never came up in the planning of the new facilities. The construction plans made by the school did not extend to the streets according to Assistant Principal Gamal Salama. “The lack of signs and speed bumps are a city issue, not a school one,” Salama said.

If a student were to be dropped off on Rosemarie, they would have to walk all the way to the corner before finding a crosswalk. This is unlike Brookside, where there is a crosswalk straight across the street from the main entrance.

“Traffic is crazy in the morning,” said social studies teacher Tara Hayes, who commutes to work by way of Brookside Road. “Parents stop in the middle of the street just to drop off their children.”

This may be because of the lack of traffic direction at the school.

“The cars just keep going and going and don’t bother to stop for anybody,” senior Melvin Flax said.

There is a staff member who is out in the morning, but their duty is to stay at the front entrance. So cars in the morning lack instruction and a driver’s only way of direction is from either a left turn or right turn only sign. This is more than what is on Brookside or McGaw.

According to City of Stockton Traffic Engineer Shirley Arnet, placing speed bumps or traffic signs is not really something the city just goes out and does. “They have to be requested, we just don’t go out and place them,” she said. “Most of the speed bumps you see on the streets were requested by the people in the neighborhoods they’re in.”

The lack of direction and traffic regulation is being felt by the students.

“I don’t feel comfortable walking to school,” Flax said. “I try to make it to school in the morning but cars don’t stop, even for little kids.”

It is not only Stagg students who are being put in harm’s way, but elementary students from Lincoln Unified who catch the bus in the morning. “More crosswalks and speed bumps would make travel faster, easier and safe,” Flax said.

According to Salama, the issue is being brought to Principal Andre Phillips and a request with the city is being worked on.

“A really important part of being safe is crossing the street,” Flax said.