Brandy Tenney has been a crossing guard in West Jordan for more than 26 years, helping kindergarten-aged kids to seniors in high school get to and from school safely.

She started as a newly expecting mother as a temporary job but ended up staying until all her kids were adults.

Nearly 10 years ago, Tenney’s own then-14-year-old son was hit by a car on his way home from a friend’s house. While he survived, she said that’s not always the case.

Sgt. Kendall Holt of the West Jordan Police Department and head of the crossing guards in the city, emphasized the importance of having crossing guards in the high-traffic areas across the city to provide safety for pedestrians and educate drivers who may be distracted or in a hurry.

Holt said that the department employs nearly 100 crossing guards as of November 2024. School zones, he added, are one of the city’s “hot topic areas” where guards are needed the most, especially during the key times when there is a higher volume of pedestrian traffic in the early morning and after school.

“West Jordan is a really busy city—in fact, I think we are the biggest city geographically in the state, and what comes with that is a large population, which is a large volume of traffic,” he said. “I'd say that's probably the number one thing [crossing guards] struggle with, is when they're making a decision to go out and stop cars, they're taking a risk.”

Crossing guards make “a huge impact on the community” and “on the safety of the kids,” Holt said. “I don’t think [crossing guards] get enough credit.”

While the city hasn’t had a large number of incidents where pedestrians were actually struck, he said, they do have quite a few "close calls" on a daily basis.

“The people we are having contact with during the day are your everyday people that are moms and dads that drop their kids off to school and are in a hurry because they're running late to work,” Holt said. “They don't want to be stopped by the crossing guards, even for just 30 seconds to a minute.”

He said being in a hurry is not worth anyone’s life.

“Slow down, put your distractions down,” he said. “It's not worth it, and you can't win that argument with me thinking it would be worth it. There isn't a job out there that's worth it. There isn't a destination out there that's worth it.”

These distractions and drivers being in a hurry, Holt said, can lead to very close calls and near-accidents with the children crossing the streets. He said they try to educate these drivers about the importance of slowing down and putting away distractions, as it's just not worth the risk of potentially hitting a child.

During a 30-minute shift, Tenney said it’s “mind-boggling” how many people are distracted on their phones and not looking at the road.

“It’s a scary thing,” she said.

Being a crossing guard is a deeply personal experience, she said, because by doing it, you become more aware of your surroundings and just how big of a difference drivers can make.

Tenney said the kids she helps cross “almost feels like extended family.”

“A lot of the drivers in these school zones are going to pick up their kid from school, and that's the only thing they're thinking about, is their child,” she said. “They're not thinking about other people's children and how quickly something could change.” λ