KAYSVILLE, Utah — Kaysville police are warning parents tonight about their kids going back to school—not about the school itself, but the walk students take to get there.
When the school kids start calling you Grandpa—that’s when you know you mean more to them than just someone who makes sure they can cross the street safely.
That’s the case for Butch Stigers, a crossing guard in Kaysville.
“Everybody calls me Grandpa and I say, that’s fine, I don’t care,” said Stigers.
As a crossing guard, Stiger has walked miles of crosswalks for the past seven years.
“I don’t have a problem with the kids,” said Stigers. "It’s the idiots behind the wheel and the jerks on bicycles.”
It’s fair to say, when it comes to drivers, Stigesr has seen it all.
A lot of people don’t know the meaning of crosswalks,” said Stigers. "I see a lot of them talking on their cellphone.”
Distracted driving—especially around crosswalks—is just what Officer Lexi Benson with Kaysville Police said she saw on Wednesday, while helping elementary school kids cross the street.
“The students weren’t wearing seatbelts,” said Benson. “I had some standing up in the car walking around.”
Benson watched as parents pulled their seatbelt over their chests, trying to look like they were wearing their seatbelt when they weren’t.
“We even had a parent with a child on their lap that was letting them drive to school that day,” said Benson. “This is kind of a big problem for us.”
When kids reach their crossing guard, Benson said parents should remind them to wait until they are told they can walk across.
Grandpa Stigers said as long as he has his stop sign with him, he feels safe.
"Pay attention to what’s going on in your surroundings, that’s the main thing,” said Stigers.
Thinking if one of his students were ever to get hurt though, Stigers said is a pathway he would never want to cross.
"You get attached to the little suckers,” said Stigers.
