Edgar Carter is one of the friendly faces students may see in the morning directing traffic or patrolling the halls of Edina High School. As a security guard at EHS, he’s tasked with protecting the school inside and out. 

Carter has found that directing the main intersection of Edina is not as easy as pointing a finger left or right. “It takes skill as you have to watch the traffic coming from all different directions,” Carter said. “When you see traffic getting backed up in one direction, you have to keep them flowing, and then once it clears out, you stop them to allow other traffic to keep moving.” 

Some may pin common driving mistakes on new teen drivers. However, they overlook the countless mistakes hurried parents make when dropping their kids off at school. “Believe it or not, it’s not the teen drivers that make the most mistakes. It’s the parents,” Carter said. “I’ve yet to have a problem with a teen driver. They are really responsive and pay attention to detail.”

Parents tend to take one more precaution than just trusting the crossing guards. “They pull up and look both ways after I have given them the right of way. That is a problem right there as it slows down traffic,” Carter said. To remedy this problem, Carter thinks parents should utilize the transportation provided by the school. “Put your kids on the bus,” said Carter.

EHS’s traffic moves as efficiently as possible; however, redesigning the parking lot layout could provide a higher success rate when trying to get 700 kids out of the school all at once. “There definitely should be more exits. You have two schools and three driveways leading out to one main intersection, and that within itself is a task,” Carter said. 

Though students may only be in the parking lot for less than an hour of the day, the crossing guards who direct EHS’s traffic are vital to the school’s  success. With crossing guards like Carter there every morning, students and parents have one less thing to worry about.