Canberra's school crossing guards are being threatened and sworn at by passing drivers, cyclists and even pedestrians while they try and help children cross the road safely.
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David Hine, who had worked as a school crossing supervisor since the initiative started at the beginning of 2018, resigned from the job recently because of what he described as non-stop abuse.
He criticised the lack of training and support he and other crossing guards received to deal with difficult situations.
Two other school crossing guards, who spoke to the Sunday Canberra Times on the condition of anonymity, said they had also been subjected to verbal abuse on the job.
Mr Hine, who was stationed outside Turner School on David Street, recalled incidents in which passing drivers had stopped and hurled abuse at him, and even purposefully swerved towards him and revved their engines threateningly.
There was one incident where a man stopped his truck at the crossing and swore at him enough to make a frightened pupil stop and check if he was OK.
There was also a man who attended the crossing on a weekly basis and behaved so threateningly towards Mr Hine that he worried for his personal safety.
"I was pretty shaken," Mr Hine said.
"There was quite a few occasions where I thought about pulling the pin, but I'd see those kids and I'd come back."
The crossing guards are employed at 25 schools across the ACT and monitor crossings from 8.15am to 9.15am and 2.40pm to 3.40pm on weekdays – rain, hail or shine.
Mr Hine said he reported some of these incidents to police because he received little to no support from his employer.
The ACT government contracted the recruitment, training and rostering of school crossing supervisors to private company Hoban Recruitment.
One of the crossing guards said they had received no information or resolution to a report they filed about a car that had mounted a curb and sped around them, ignoring their stop sign.
The other crossing guard said they were pleased with the support they received from Hoban after reporting a few incidents.
However, Mr Hine said he found the training and support offered by Hoban inadequate.
He said crossing guards had to sit through a two-hour training course that did not cover dealing with abuse or other difficult situations.
He also said the system of submitting an incident report was not realistic. This sentiment was echoed by another crossing guard who said it was impossible to get down a number plate, make and model of a car, as well as the details of the incident, when there were children trying to cross the road.
"A lot of us weren't aware how tough [the job] was going to be," Mr Hine said.
"When you have people in a stressful situation, you take them out, have some counselling, let them talk about it.
"No one came to the crossing to see me or have a chat about it."
A Transport Canberra and City Services spokesman said the ACT government had a duty of care to crossing supervisors and it expected the public to respect them as they should any territory employee who was carrying out their job.
He said all crossing guards received comprehensive training from Hoban, which included classroom and practical training and ongoing support.
"Hoban has comprehensive incident reporting, escalation and investigation procedures for crossing supervisors who are fully supported by the local management team and 24-hour on-call service," the spokesman said.
Canberra Grammar, Duffy Primary, Good Shepherd Primary, St Francis of Assisi Primary and Torrens Primary schools were added to the program this year.
The spokesman said the government would like to expand the program further and it was currently under evaluation, a process which had so far returned primarily positive responses.
