Driver Alert! Watch those School Zones

The Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office already started its annual school zone awareness program, and they'll be out in full force Monday.  The Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Department has given notice:

According to CPSO Commander James McGee:

"Our goal is to make people recognize the school zones, to respect them, and to ensure the safety of our children," said Commander James McGee with the Enforcement Division.

"The first thing is we don't want a tragic accident involving a child," said Commander McGee. "Second, is we don't want to write a bunch of speeding tickets."

Drivers are urged to pay attention to the times posted on the school zones signs and strictly abide by them.

"It's 9 AM, and it's up until 9 AM that somebody can be cited for speeding in a school zone," said Commander McGee. "People have to understand that children do get to school late. There are still some things going on at some schools up until 9 o'clock, it's not just until the bell rings. There are some things going on. That's why the school zones are until 9 o'clock and until 4 o'clock PM."

"We work really close with the school board, really close with our local principals," said Commander McGee. "There are some schools that are on main roads, that we work with the principals. We deploy extra deputies to these school zones in the first week or two of school to help with the traffic control and to help getting our motorists back in the habit of respecting our school zones."

The best thing is to really be on the look-out for school zones. Very few people will intentionally speed in a school zone. It's just that for the past three months we haven't had to deal with it.

"