Safe Passage in Santa Ana

A Santa Ana school administrator says young students feel safe at home and on campus. It’s getting from one place to the other that’s a problem. It seems incredible that youngsters have to worry about safety getting to school in the daytime, but that is the reality in some neighborhoods.

Last week was the start of a new program called “Safe Corridors” to try to ensure that the thousands of students in one section of Santa Ana get to and from school safely. If the program works as well as it has elsewhere, it should be beneficial to the county’s largest city.

Bounded roughly by 1st Street and Edinger Avenue on the north and south, and by Raitt and Fairview streets on the east and west, the neighborhood has one private and seven public schools, most of them elementary schools. The principal of one school said that safety is one of many things that can keep children from coming to school.

Safe Corridors envisions pairing parents who have volunteered to patrol the routes to and from school. The adults will have orange vests and cell phones programmed to reach the school, police and fire dispatchers. The parents will escort students into their classrooms if needed. If parents aren’t in the area, students can duck into houses identified by a flag or placard, where residents have offered shelter.

Those involved in Safe Corridors will have to take care not to alarm children unduly. But letting them know that there are places of refuge in case of an emergency can help calm fears. Santa Ana police say crime in the neighborhood has been cut by more than 40% in six years, helped by a community policing program funded by $850,000 in federal grants. An additional $21,200 in federal funds and corporate donations will pay for the Safe Corridors program.

A police lieutenant said that despite the drop in crime, there have been problems with gangs and thefts of lunch money. Some children remain worried, whether by heavy traffic along the streets or by loiterers on sidewalks.

Dozens of similar programs operate across the country. Officials of those programs say the mere presence of an adult can offer reassurance to a child. That sense of safety is an important component of the learning process. Safe Corridors deserves success and support.