Toronto Police to Dufferin Street’s dancing crossing guard: please stop the music
Kathleen Byers, a crossing guard at Alexander Muir Junior Public School, is a west-end icon, and not just because of her sunny demeanour and eye-catching reflective vest. For the past few years, the 64-year-old former fitness instructor has semi-famously been livening up the Dufferin and Dundas West area with impromptu on-duty dance routines, soundtracked with top-40 music from a portable speaker.
Apparently, she’s been a public menace all this time—or at least that’s what her supervisors at the Toronto Police Service seem to be saying. The Star reports that the police have ordered Byers to stop the dancing, so her not-at-all-provocative moves don’t lead drivers astray. “We have to make sure the directions she’s giving drivers are clear,” a police spokesperson told the Star. Byers’s supporters are already starting to register their discontent on Twitter. We hope this tragic injustice is remedied somehow, and that one day all crossing guards will be required to stop traffic with nothing but dance.
Talk about missing the point.
“We have to make sure the directions she’s giving drivers are clear”
What is unclear about a crossing guard standing in the middle of the road with a big red stop sign?
Just a damn shame. I wasn’t aware that dancing in the streets was illegal. I would think her upbeat moves would bring attention to the fact that there is a crossing there, slowing drivers down. She always brightened up my day.
Because Toronto drivers are in too much of a hurry and her dancing would distract them from their texting while driving.
I’ve seeb her dancing many times I think it’s great! What’s wrong with the world these days?
They can’t do anything about their crack smoking mayor but they have a problem with this? Seriously? Keep on dancing Kathleen!!!
KEEP ON DANCING!!! Don’t let the Toronto Police suck all the fun out of your job!! Its really to bad TPS has to try to suck the fun out of EVERYTHING!!! SHUT UP TPS & DANCE! GET YOUR HAPPY ON!
This is crazy. Let the woman dance. Not enough feel good stories in Toronto these days.
what happens if one of her dance moves requires a head turn that takes her eye off oncoming traffic for a split second as someone is walking across the street who is looking at a dancing crossing guard rather than paying attention to oncoming traffic. The crossing guard is there to stop traffic but also alert walkers just in case a car doesn’t appear to be stopping…..her dance moves are a distraction to her ability to give her full attention to peoples safety.
Back when i was in grade school, she was a crossing guard I’ve always remembered. Always kind and caring, she always did make my day brighter with her funky dance moves and even other kids my age at the time would dance along. Nothing wrong with walking across the street dancing with the stop sign. It is perfectly clear that a crossing guard with a stop sign in broad daylight that drivers are suppose to stop. I just find that other public services like the police just take things too seriously. By the way I’m in college now so it has been several years since then!