Parents await solution to dangerous crosswalk near North Naples Middle School

One student who attends North Naples Middle School says crossing the six lanes of traffic to school is like a game of Russian Roulette he plays twice a day.

Video taken at the end of last school year shows cars and even a bus flying through the crosswalk where students should have the right of way.

“I would say that time i took the video that was the closest, prob a foot and a half away from me,” said Dexter Housewert, a student at the middle school.

Housewert’s father, Brian, posted video to Facebook, wanting to show just how dangerous the walk to school is for students nearby.

That video received hundreds of comments and shares from other worried parents.

Melissa Hemmert lives one neighborhood over and says they don’t let their kids walk to class.

“As middle schoolers, they want to be able to walk to school without their parents having to cross them across the street, but all of us have made it our business to carpool even though all of us work full time.”

Hemmer says as Collier County’s full time population grows, they fear more for the safety of their kids.

Parents say that ideally, the intersection needs crossing guards to direct traffic.

“The sixth graders are particularly small, they can easily get hit or hurt and then this would be a very different news story.”

Parents even petitioned the school board last year for a solution, but nothing was done.

Now, a week before the school year starts, they are hoping for change.

A district spokesperson says “a solution has been reached since they first started looking into the issue last spring,” and that they’ll be notifying parents before school starts next week, but they haven’t disclosed the solution yet.