Toronto’s dancing crossing guard quits
Posted May 15, 2014 2:55 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A beloved crossing guard, who caught the media’s attention last year for dancing on the job in Toronto’s west end, has called it quits.
Kathleen Byers said she received a letter last Thursday from the Toronto Police Service, which runs the crossing guard program, saying she was suspended without pay for breaking procedures.
And after hearing second-hand that her case was out of the hands of Traffic Services and with the police’s labour relations unit, the 65-year-old resigned Tuesday to avoid the stress.
“I think I’ve had enough of the bureaucracy,” Byers told CityNews.ca on Thursday.
The letter from police arrived after Byers appeared in a tongue-and-cheek music video called Oh Cecelia produced by the Canadian indie band Born Ruffians.
The video, which was uploaded to YouTube on April 16, shows Byers boogying like she typically did when at work on Dufferin Street and Gordon Street, just south of Dundas Street West.
In the first half of the video, Byers is dancing in her street clothes and in the second half she is seen wearing her crossing guard reflective vest and carrying her stop sign.
Police spokesman Mark Pugash said Byers was suspended partly because she used police-issued equipment in the music video without permission.
“You can’t do that without getting permission,” he said.
He also said the other reason was that Byers’ supervisor had told her to stop dancing and listening to her music “because her job is a crossing guard.”
“She’s responsible for the safety of people crossing the street. Her job isn’t to entertain and dance but to ensure the safety of young people,” Pugash said.
Byers admitted she didn’t stop dancing even after being warned by her supervisor last year but that she didn’t know about needing permission to use her uniform in the music video.
Some members of the public weren’t happy with the decision and took to Twitter to express their displeasure, but Pugash said, “this is the right decision.”
Byers, who had been a cross guard for more than 10 years and dancing on the job since April 2010, said “I always did my job perfectly. Nobody got hurt. My eyes were on the traffic all the time.”
Did Byers make the right decision? Share your thoughts in the comments?
