Two Medea Creek Middle School students have been hit by cars on residential Oak Park streets within one week: one on Jan. 31 and another on Feb. 7. In response, the district is implementing changes to minimize future harm.

According to MCMS Principal Brad Benioff, both students walked away without any major injuries and went back to school the day after the accident.

“[They had] scrapes and bruises, got checked out by a doctor [and] came back to school the next day,” Benioff said.

Witness for the most recent accident, junior Alex Labrecque, said that he saw the accident while he was driving to school.

“I was the first car in front of the left turn lane right off the crosswalk to Kanan road closest to [Oak Park High School], and then there was this little, blonde kid crossing the street and on the other side of the street there was a mom coming from Medea Creek [Middle School] making a left hand turn,” Labrecque said. “She hit the kid and then kept driving for about five feet.”

Labrecque immediately checked on the victim once he saw the accident.

“I got out of my car scared s––less to make sure he was OK,” Labrecque said. “He didn’t break anything, he just scraped up his legs and arms a little bit. Then, he borrowed my phone to call his mom, who was down the street since he literally had just been dropped off. Then, Mr. Meskis was like ‘We need to move our cars,’ so we pulled into the school.”

Labrecque didn’t have to report the incident to the police, he only filled out a written witness report in the OPHS office.

“I mean, I helped the kid up, but being a hero would mean stopping the car,” Labrecque said.

OPHS Vice Principal Jason Meskis said that someone had already called 911 by the time he arrived on scene.

“His leg was scraped and his arm was scraped, but he was conscious and seemed coherent and fine,” Meskis said. “I called Brenda [Pasqua], our athletic trainer, because I always call her when somebody’s hurt.”

After the arrival of officials from [Ventura County’s] sheriff and fire departments, traffic around MCMS and OPHS was rerouted to another side of the road to clear space for the authorities’ purposes.

“The fire department checked him out, took his vitals and then his mom came and picked him up; they advised her to get him checked out by the doctor,” Meskis said.

Before the incident in Feb. 7, another student was hit by a car while walking along Hollytree drive Jan. 31.

“Her parent was parked on the far side of the street and she just walked between two cars and into the middle of the street. I guess she didn’t see the car that was coming along,” Benioff said. “Luckily, the car was not going very fast and the driver hit the brakes hard, very quickly so when she actually got hit it was not really hard.”

Meskis said that the school has already made changes to secure the safety of students, namely through the aid of the All City Management Services by adding another crossing guard in front of the school.

“Now in the mornings, we’re putting one of our campus supervisors on one of the sides of the street,” Meskis said.

Benioff, however, said that even though the schools have been working toward changing traffic patterns, the two schools have also been discussing moving around scheduling between them by altering zero period hours or staggering the schools’ coinciding hours in general.

“With a lot of kids getting out at the same time and a lot of cars and the traffic patterns, it creates dangerous situations,” Benioff said.

Despite making some changes such as additional crossing guards, accidents still happen.

“I think there’s always more we can try to do. We have been talking to some of our parents and talking about trying to get some different signs and things out and around as reminders,” Benioff said.

For now, administrators caution any pedestrians, student or not, walking within the vicinity of the two schools.

“Everybody’s got to be watching at all times and be super cautious and go slow,” Meskis said.

According to both OPHS Vice Principal Bryan Martin and Benioff, accidents happen more often in the morning perhaps due to lack of caution from those rushing to arrive to school on time.

“Always be aware of the cars and what’s going on and never assume that it’s safe to cross,” Benioff said.