Parents of students at Sam Livingston Elementary are upset after learning they can no longer help chaperone students across the street at a marked crosswalk near the southeast school.

A busy road runs near the school and parents and teachers have been acting as crossing guards for the last few years to help the younger children get safely to the other side.

During a recent community meeting officials at the school learned that it is illegal for uncertified people to instruct others on how to cross the street and that the practice of using adults to help students cross the street violates the Traffic Safety Act.

An email was sent out to parents of students at the school last week outlining the regulations.

“We think it's foolish and ridiculous that we had parents and teachers taking time out of their day to help our kids across the street for safety and to have a police person come in who's supposed to teach our kids that they're there to help them and always go to them for safety issues, to tell them teachers are now not allowed to help them cross the street seems so counter intuitive to everything we teach them about police,” said one parent.

The Traffic Safety Committee at Sam Livingston School is working closely with police, the AMA and other officials to try and mediate this issue.

The problem started after the school stopped enrolling grade 5 and 6 students back in 2010.

The older students were certified through the AMA to help patrol at the crosswalks legally and there has been a void in the process since the school cut the higher grades.

Students can still be taught how to cross the road safely but the issue is that an uncertified person can't verbally tell them when it is safe to cross the street.

"If you tell someone that it is okay to cross you take the liability for that crossing on yourself as an unqualified person that's the line the law says is not okay" said Karen Lloyd, Sam Livingston Traffic Safety Committee.

Parents and students are encouraged to cross at the intersection up the street where there is a traffic signal while the Traffic Safety Committee and partners figure out a solution.

There will be volunteers at the crosswalk to monitor the area and the AMA School Safety Patrol will be visiting the school on Thursday to teach the students how to cross the street safely.

(With files from Kathy Le)