PORT MARIA, St Mary — The sight and sound of motor vehicles whizzing past the main entrance at Port Maria Primary School are stark reminders of how paramount, yet risky, is Phillip Brown’s job.

And the 60-year-old doesn’t take it lightly.

“My job is very important. Without me outside the school gate, many of the children can’t go across the street because the taxi man dem naah stop,” the veteran traffic warden said.

He also puts some of the children on taxis — a task that he said can be onerous especially when students are reluctant to travel with some motorists. Brown also sometimes faces drivers’ wrath when he tries to stop traffic to facilitate students using the pedestrian crossing at the school’s gate.

“Sometimes mi haffi cuss di driver dem,” he admits. “It’s a good work, but yuh have to have courage and guts to do it.”

Brown is proud that over the 30 years he has been serving his alma mater as a traffic warden through the Jamaica Constabulary Force, his record has been spotless where it matters most. No student has ever been injured… while crossing the road in the area he supervises, he told the Jamaica Observer.

However, he recalls narrow escapes.

One of the most mind-boggling incidents happened years ago when, according to Brown, he had to use his ‘children crossing’ sign to shield some students from being hit by a speeding car.

“Mi haffi save myself and two children one morning from a taxi man who a race fi guh pick up passengers,” he recounted. “The car lick out the sign outa mi hand completely and jerk out mi hand.”

Brown, who has been awarded locally for his stellar service, said he also feels rewarded when many of the students he once helped to cross the road greet him in the streets or even offer him gifts.

That is among the reasons he is highly motivated to serve the current crop of students. Another reason is that Brown gets bored at home whenever school is closed for a protracted period of time.

Due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the campus was closed to students for over a year, starting March 2020. And when it reopened, it was forced to close again due to a massive flood on February 1.

“In all my experience of flood in Port Maria, it is the first I ever see a flood like this,” Brown said, adding that the previous ones pale in comparison.

When Port Maria Primary reopened March 7 for face-to-face classes, Brown, attired in his usual white coat, was ecstatic to be back on the job.

“Mi feel glad,” he told the Observer. “When mi deh a yawd sit down with nothing to do, mi get bored. Mi jus have to sleep a daytime; mi cyaan bother wid dat.

“When mi come out here at the school, mi move around with the children and so forth.”

The father of two adult daughters said he initially did fishing after leaving Wycliffe Martin High (formerly Brimmervale High School).

He didn’t have a boat for himself and so he grabbed an opportunity to become a traffic warden. He has absolutely no regrets, he declared.

The principal at Port Maria Primary, Carla Ruddock, who has known Brown for many years, spoke highly of him.

“He is a committed street warden. And if he is asked to assist in any way where the children’s welfare is concerned or in any activity on the school compound, he willingly does so,” she told the Observer. “Where safety and security is concerned, it is of utmost importance. In terms of the students getting safely across the street, Mr Brown ensures that is done.”