'It was only a matter of time' - parents say unsafe conditions at Sugar Mill must be fixed

PORT ORANGE — Sugar Mill Elementary students, parents and community members gathered at the school’s campus Friday evening after a fourth-grade student was struck and killed by a vehicle near the school earlier that day. 

The accident happened about 7:10 a.m. Friday just outside the school at 1101 Charles St. in Port Orange, and the girl, who was riding a bike, was hit by a vehicle exiting the school after dropping off another student, police said.

Vigil attendees placed flowers, cards, stuffed animals, candles, balloons and wind chimes on a Sugar Mill Elementary School gate, near where the accident occurred. The group — which consisted of about 10 children, their parents, and a handful of community members — held a moment of silence in honor of the student.

Sugar Mill parents speak out: Fourth-grader's death was preventable

No district or school officials attended the vigil.

Elizabeth Hawkins saw the “commotion” this morning as she was bringing her great granddaughter to school. It wasn’t until later in the day that she learned what happened.

“I’ve lost a child. It’s devastating,” she said. “It’s devastating, so I wanted to come and show some respect to the family and the little girl.”

Other parents had the same intentions when deciding to attend Friday’s vigil.

“I’m passionate about just being here, for one; for giving a little bit of respect to the family and showing some love in that aspect, and I’m also really passionate about organizing something to get a crosswalk here, so nothing like this ever happens again,” said Stephanie Bowen, parent of a third-grader at Sugar Mill who helped organize the vigil.

Haley Starbeck, parent of two pre-kindergarten students and one first-grader at Sugar Mill, was also part of the group who organized Friday’s vigil. She echoed Bowen’s statement.

“I couldn’t imagine going through this kind of situation and not having a support network, and also, I imagine how painful it must be for them to even come close to this school,” she said. “Someone needs to show up for them.”

‘It was only a matter of time’

According to Hawkins, there is heavy morning traffic at Sugar Mill Elementary.

“The most important thing to me as a (grand) parent that drives the child every morning to school here is that they get a safety officer at that spot to direct traffic in and out,” she said. “A crosswalk is fine. But the traffic here in the morning is very, a lot of traffic, and it really needs to have somebody … stopping and directing traffic.”

Starbeck said she and other parents have been addressing their concerns with school for two years.

“The issue isn’t just with the crosswalk,” she said. “There is a ton of issues inside of the school, as well. They have children walking between moving cars. They have pre-K students that have to get to cars. There are no parking spots for the parents to park. It’s a disaster.”

Starbeck was not surprised that this incident occurred, and she felt this tragedy could have been avoided.

“It was only a matter of time before something like this happened,” she said. “It really was, and that’s a sad fact that something bad has to happen for somebody to do something.

“I feel like the death lies on every single one of those decision-makers. And that’s not just manning the current administration, that’s several administrations, and everybody plays the bureaucratic game that it’s someone else’s fault,” she continued. “At the end of the day, somebody needs to be here or we’ll be here because it’s not going to happen again.”

Nicole Snyder, mom of a fifth-grader at Sugar Mill, agreed.

“This should not have happened,” she said. “I don’t blame the school. I don’t blame the driver. I think this was just a matter of time.”

Moving forward

Snyder said that she had seen the young girl who passed away Friday riding her bike to school.

“Knowing that I’m not going to see her — it’s hard,” she said.

Snyder’s son has been riding a scooter to school everyday for the past few months. She said he will no longer be doing that for the remainder of this school year.

Snyder said she is “pissed” and “furious” after the incident.

“I just don’t think anything is going to change, and we need to take action as parents and as a community to put an end to all of this,” she said.

“There are speed zones for a reason — abide by them,” she continued. “They’re short. Take a different route if you can’t (abide).”

Starbeck believes that there is strength in numbers when trying to implement change.

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“We're trying to unite everybody together so that when we have to go to the school board meetings, and the city council meetings, when all the steps have to be made to actually push this issue until something's done,” she said.

Specifically, moving forward, Starbeck said she would like to see police officers at the school everyday next week and a plan for what is going to happen next school year.

“They cannot sit idly by and hope what they're doing is working,” Starbeck said. “They actually have to do something that works and if that means showing up here themselves every single day. If you can hire a crossing guard, then you need to stand out there yourself. It’s part of your job. We trust you with our children every single day. Clearly, that trust is not well-deserved right now.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Sugar Mill Elementary community holds vigil for girl who died Friday