Parents at Griffin Elementary say they’re watching their children cross a 45-mph road every school day with no crossing guard in sight — and the county official responsible for traffic safety says nothing needs to change.

Griffin Elementary sits along Kathleen Road, where the posted speed limit is 45 mph. Parents crossing during drop-off and dismissal say drivers routinely fail to slow down, and vehicles sometimes block marked crosswalks near the school. During two site visits at dismissal time, reporters observed heavy traffic, cars parked in crosswalks, parents shepherding children across the road — and, at one point, two young children crossing the adjacent intersection entirely on their own, with no adult and no crossing guard present.

“It’s scary,” Griffin parent Danielle Heptinstall said. “You’ve got people parking in the crosswalk. They’re not slowing down. There’s not a speed limit sign. There’s nothing to protect us.”

Parent David Maxwell described similarly close calls.

“I have to watch as well. Just like being a child. Because you never know; the cars are flying, you don’t know if they’re going to run you over,” Maxwell said. “It’s a little bit fast. Need to slow them down a little bit.”

Parent Brandi Pollino started a Change.org petition in August calling for a reduced-speed school zone, lower posted speeds and additional safety measures at the crossing. It has gathered nearly 100 signatures so far.

Despite the firsthand evidence of unsafe conditions, the county official in charge has declined to act. Polk County Traffic Manager Amy Gregory said the county has evaluated the area before and “has not found justification for any improvements.” She said reduced-speed school zones are generally reserved for uncontrolled crossings or stretches where children walk close to the roadway, and that Griffin doesn’t qualify because students use a sidewalk and the county maintains a signalized crossing at Kathleen Road and Hanley/Prine Road.

That signalized crossing, however, had no crossing guard present during either of two site visits at dismissal. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the crossing-guard program, said two guards are assigned to Griffin — but at Kathleen Road and Knights Station/Griffin Road, roughly a fifth of a mile away from the crossing parents use.

Gregory had previously said she would conduct a follow-up review after Labor Day. As of Monday — more than a week later — that review still hadn’t happened. She now says she expects to visit sometime next week.

Polk County Public Schools, notably, stopped short of backing the county’s no-action stance. The district said it is aware of the concerns and has passed them along to law enforcement, telling reporters: “We welcome any improvements that would benefit student and pedestrian safety.” When asked directly whether it agreed the current setup was adequate, the district declined to comment further — a telling silence given the county’s position.

The City of Lakeland, meanwhile, confirmed the stretch of Kathleen Road outside the school is county-owned, meaning decisions on signage, markings and school zones rest with the county, not the city. The city said it has received just one formal complaint this year about children crossing the road, and that it adjusted its own traffic-signal timing at the school driveway after a request from the district to give parents more time to clear out.

For now, no new school-zone or roadway improvements are planned, and the burden of getting kids across a 45-mph road safely continues to fall on parents — while the county employee tasked with evaluating that risk has yet to follow through on her own promised review.

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