Students at a Catholic school in the Shaw neighborhood of south St. Louis are stepping up to make their streets safer.
Children from St. Margaret of Scotland School have become the first group to take part in a new traffic safety initiative called Project STOPP — Standing Together Offering Pedestrian Protection. The campaign aims to reduce reckless driving and raise awareness about stop sign compliance.
The idea came from Michael Maher, first vice president of the Shaw Neighborhood Improvement Association. He created the project after his husband was injured in a crash caused by a driver who ran a stop sign.
“There are many new residents in Shaw,” Maher said. “People often say that running stop signs feels normal here — but it shouldn’t be.”
Earlier this year, Maher brought the idea to school principal Patrick Holley. Holley agreed the campaign was a good match for the school. Many of the students walk or bike to class each day. Once a week, the entire school also walks five blocks to attend Mass at the parish church.
“Drivers are running stop signs, especially on 39th Street, and some are driving too fast,” Holley said. “We saw this as a way to work with our neighborhood group and remind people that our students’ safety depends on responsible driving.”
Students from kindergarten through 8th grade took part in the effort. They asked drivers to sign pledges promising to obey stop signs. Each person who signed received a red sticker to place on their dashboard as a visual reminder. The students collected around 1,300 signatures in total.
The school’s student council, with support from teachers Karabeth Peterson and Karen Rasure, helped organize the campaign. They held an assembly on safe driving that featured teachers wearing cardboard cars, racing around a course and stopping at make-believe stop signs.
Prizes also helped boost enthusiasm. The neighborhood group provided gift cards for a local ice cream shop. The student who gathered the most signatures earned the title of “honorary intersection,” with a street corner named after them for one year.
That honor currently belongs to seventh grader Evander Page. He walks and bikes to school and says stop sign violations are a common and frightening experience.
“Sometimes I think the cars will stop,” Evander said. “But then they just go right through.”
It’s not yet clear if the STOPP pledges have changed driver behavior. But Maher said the campaign has sparked conversation around town — including at the local dog park.
“And that’s really the goal,” Maher said. “We want people to talk about why safe driving matters.”
St. Margaret of Scotland is the only school to join Project STOPP so far, but it plans to participate again next year. Maher is now working with Trailnet, a local transportation advocacy group, to bring the project to more schools in Shaw and across the St. Louis area.
