Students take a step for safety in surveying their walks to school

Even though most students at Garfield Elementary in Santa Ana walk only a few blocks to class, they often trudge over broken sidewalks and through littered alleyways, rub up against graffiti-covered walls and step over rubble from construction sites. Some dodge roving dogs, homeless people or gang members.

"You ask the kids how many times they've heard gunshots and there are some hands raised," Marx said.

Students at thousands of schools nationwide walked en masse to school Wednesday in events timed for International Walk to School Day, meant to encourage physical fitness and to reduce carbon emissions.

But in poor, urban communities like Santa Ana, where most students are not driven or bused to school but go by foot, the annual event served as a forum for long-held concerns that the journey can be a treacherous one. A "walkability" survey completed by nearly 200 Garfield students shows they worry about a wide range of eyesores and obstacles, from poorly maintained streets and sidewalks to gang activity and graffiti.

Students at the school, located in one of Orange County's poorest neighborhoods and just blocks from a row of scrap metal yards and train tracks, performed a "walk audit" last month in preparation for Wednesday, cataloging all the obstacles, dangers and nuisances that might stand in the way of getting to school.

In the 45-minute exercise, fifth-graders accompanied by teachers and public health officials traced their steps to and from school with checklists, notepads and an eye for things that made them feel at risk or uncomfortable.

Denise Ibarra, 11, wrote down "broken curb" during her walk as a scavenger came by pushing a grocery cart full of bottles and cans. As the group slowly walked on, she added "barbed wire," "broken cracked sidewalk," "big rock" and "broken mirrors" to the list. And that was just the first block.

In the next few blocks, they found more barriers and blight, passing grimy alleyways, dirt footpaths through littered vacant lots and gaping potholes. The group turned back when they came to a thoroughfare where cars sped through intersections. There were no crosswalks.

Nearly 200 other students at the school also completed surveys about their walk to school. Their responses were compiled by the county healthcare agency.