Crossing guard Jillian Selby, not pictured, was watching her post at Rockaway Boulevard when the incident happened. Forum Newsgroup photo by Luis Gronda.
A school crossing guard was arrested in Ozone Park last week for allegedly choking a student, but the guard said she was the one being menaced when the boy flashed a knife.
Sixty-year-old Jillian Selby was minding her post on Rockaway Boulevard near M.S.137 on Friday when police arrested her around noon.
A 14-year-old came to them with red marks on his neck accusing Selby of strangling him that morning.
According to court documents, the student told police that at about 7:30 a.m. Selby got in his face and started yelling as he crossed the street.
The boy claims she then knocked off his hat, stepped on his foot and began choking him.
But Selby says she’s the victim.
“I am telling you it never happened,” she said from her Howard Beach apartment on Monday. “I’ve been around for 12 years. I wouldn’t touch nobody.”
She claims she saw the 14-year-old leaning against a car with group of friends and noticed he had a small knife.
According to Selby, she approached him and told him he would have to move on to school and could not stand by her post holding a weapon.
“He said, ‘F__k the law; f__k you; f__k the police; and I’m going to f__k you up,’” Selby said. “The fact of the matter is they came out to make trouble.”
That’s when the boy attacked, Selby alleges.
“He lunged at me,” she said. “I didn’t choke him. I didn’t touch him, I didn’t do anything.”
As the students swung at her, the group of friends held him back by the neck—which is what caused the red marks—Selby said.
She yelled for a nearby man to call 911, and the student eventually backed down after wildly swinging at her, she said.
She then watched as the group of kids crossed the street to a nearby bowling alley, where she could see them taking making calls and taking pictures with their cell phones—to show police, she assumed.
At about noon, police showed up to take her into custody.
Selby has been charged with assault, criminal obstruction of breathing, endangering the welfare of a child and harassment.
She has since been released without bail and is waiting for her next court date near the end of August.
Selby said she’s worked the post on Rockaway Boulevard for about a year and claims the boy is a troublemaker who she’s yelled at about crossing rules in the past.
She started as a crossing guard in Howard Beach and has had to adjust to a new environment in Ozone Park.
She claims it’s a rough job where kids punch her, hit her walking by and spin her around like a turnstyle.
“When I go down to walk in Ozone Park, these kids behave like animals,” she said. “I am only trying to keep them safe. I am the only crossing guard that will stand up and tell them what I have to tell them.”
Selby said the only mistake she made was not filing her own report when the boy allegedly attacked her.
“That caused me to get arrested,” she said.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com
