Along with the San Dieguito Union High School District, the City of Encinitas has decided to share the cost and spend taxpayer dollars together on crossing guards for middle and high school students — including strapping 18-year-olds who are legally adults.
Yes, the same age cohort that stormed Normandy, flew B-17s over Germany, and humped packs through Vietnam now needs a kindly adult in a reflective vest to shepherd them across the terrifying 2-lane Santa Fe Drive to get to Algebra II.
Picture it: little Timmy, 17 years and 11 months old, AirPods blasting whatever’s left of his hearing, staring at his phone while a crossing guard halts traffic so he doesn’t have to look up from TikTok. Heaven forbid Junior develops the survival skill of “glancing left and right.”
Previous generations at that age were entrusted with machine guns, fighter planes, and the fate of Western civilization.
Today’s Encinitas youth? They get a human stop sign because the walk from the SUV drop-off zone might require them to actually pay attention to their surroundings.
This is peak California: where the state lectures the world about climate change, equity, and “empowering youth,” then treats high school seniors like fragile Fabergé eggs who might shatter if they encounter an unprotected crosswalk. Many children, as early as age 14, are entrusted with babysitting, and eighteen-year-olds can vote, join the military (voluntarily, unlike the draft era), buy lottery tickets, and sign legal contracts.
But navigating a suburban intersection on foot? That’s a job for the city taxpayers’ wallets. Half the costs anyway, the other half will come from property taxes paid by the very parents who raised these delicate flowers, unable to cross without supervision.
The same parents who allow many of these students to tear through neighborhoods on e-bikes without any adult supervision, formal training, or licensing!
The irony is delicious. Previous generations survived “free-range” childhoods — riding bikes without helmets, playing unsupervised until the streetlights came on, and learning road safety through the occasional close call with a station wagon. Now we have a generation so bubble-wrapped that our local governments are subsidizing pedestrian escorts for people old enough to enlist.
What’s next? Crossing guards for Mira Costa College?
Of course, Encinitas isn’t alone in this soft-parenting epidemic. Cities nationwide coddle teens who binge-watch YouTube yet panic at the sight of a yellow light. You may not like the “snowflake” label, but when local government pays people to hold stop paddles for near-adults, it’s hard to argue. The greatest generation didn’t need safe spaces.
Instead of teaching responsibility, we’re institutionalizing helplessness. An 18-year-old who requires a crossing guard is unlikely to conquer Silicon Valley, start a business, or defend anything worth saving.
This crossing-guard program perfectly captures modern risk aversion. We happily address perceived “safety” while ignoring real issues, such as academic decline and economic illiteracy.
Encinitas, I want to be the first to congratulate you. You’ve turned public funds into a comedy routine. For the cost of those guards, maybe invest in a program that creates license plates for e-bikes, which must be displayed to park them on school property, so law enforcement can suggest rules-of-the-road training for riders who have trouble behaving.
Or here’s a radical idea: parenting classes to teach letting kids face minor risks to help them learn to make better decisions. The road to adulthood shouldn’t need a municipal escort. Previous generations crossed oceans under fire. Can’t this one be trusted to cross the street?
Jerome Stocks is a former mayor and city councilman of Encinitas. Read more commentaries here.
