To ask about parking on zigzag lines in front of school?

[WhoWants2Know]

Is this an issue for other schools? I don’t personally do it, but my local school has a number of parents who have always parked on the zig zag lines in front of school, as well as a couple of taxis who take kids to neighbouring villages. The other nearby school has the same issue, where parents just ignore the lines and park wherever they can. It’s a straight road, but narrow enough that the parked cars mean only one lane is left for traffic. School have recently sent letters asking people not to park there, but they do it anyway. Some have a couple of small children who I think are sleeping in the car.

Anyway, yesterday was the school’s pantomime trip. Letters and texts asked parents to collect children at 1:30, as the school was closed for a repair. Everyone arrived, including parents and taxis who parked on zigzags. The school building was locked and no staff or kids present. Coaches arrived after 1:45, with nowhere to park, and the road was blocked so that they couldn’t move forward either. So the kids disembarked in the road and wove through cars and a crowd of parents into the school hall, where they were then released.

Today the school sent home a letter cancelling next year’s pantomime trip and any other trip where parents might arrive at the same time as coaches.

I’m not entirely sure who is being more unreasonable here. The parents shouldn’t park there, but equally I feel like the school could have asked parents to collect after the kids were back to the school. They also could have asked at least one member of staff to be present to direct parking and direct the smaller kids as they got off the bus. Either way, punishing the entire school for the actions of a few parents seems a bit harsh, and I feel pretty sure the same parents will still be parked there tomorrow. Who is being (most) unreasonable?

[grannytomine]

They are trying to keep the children safe, shame the parents don't share their concern.

[Rockandrollwithit]

Teachers and other school staff are not traffic wardens and should not have to direct traffic. One member of staff staying behind is one less supporting children on the trip.

Totally the fault of the parents. Even if you have a baby in the car, you still can't park on zig zags.

[FucksakeCuntingFuckingTwats]

Our school has the same issue and people parking in staff car park or using it to turn. Every single news letter is the head teacher asking people to please obey the rules. Last month a parent turned in teachers car park and crashed into a teacher's car. We also have markings round the school where you can't park as it blocks children who are crossing the roads visibility to the road. People still do it. Every single morning and afternoon. We have had traffic police come and issue tickets occassionally too. People are better for a say then then it returns to normal selfish parking.

I think the school was right to do that. Until parents learn that their parking is selfish and putting children in danger the school need to do all they can to keep the kids safe.

[BishopBrennansArse]

Granny I'm sure their little darlings will dissolve in rain or be completely unable to use their little legs to walk a bit.

[HidingBehindTheWallpaper]

You seem to think that they asked you to collect at 1.30 but then got back 15 minutes later just to piss you off.
Could it be that the play was longer than they thought? That the coaches got stuck in traffic? That someone was sick so they stopped? There was a child missing when they did the head count. That wrangling 200 children onto coaches and ensuring they all have their belts done up isn’t for the faint hearted and took slightly longer.

[BurnTheBlackSuit]

Interesting about cones as our school uses them.

Incidentally, if there are parking restrictions on the zig zags outside the school, the coach shouldn't be parking there either...

[MidniteScribbler]

Stop trying to blame the school. Self entitled fuckwits who think that their sleeping baby or having to walk a few extra metres are more important than the safety of all of the children in the school are the only ones to blame here.

At no point in my teaching degree was I given a lesson in how to direct vehicles to park. I teach children, not manage carparks.

[WhoWants2Know]

The reason I assumed that that cones would be an option is that a member of staff from the school puts out cones every. single. day. for the taxis that have to collect children and take them to neighbouring villages, as well as for the buses that take kids to swimming. So clearly the school doesn’t realise that it isn’t an option. So I had thought that they might perhaps have had AN individual on site to do the same thing yesterday. Clearly that was not reasonable.

[ToffeeUp]

It's a shame that the school has to take these measures but until parents stop parking on the zigzag lines, I don't see what else they can do.
And to suggest that a member of staff should be there directing traffic is just nonsense, they are there for the children.

[BewareOfDragons]

Good on the school.

Blame the parents who park like assholes. THey've ruined it for everyone. Entirely on them.

[HidingBehindTheWallpaper]

They most likely needed all the staff to go to the theatre for adult to child ratios. Perhaps they hoped that people wouldn’t park illegally.

[MinorRSole]

In your op you said the school had recently sent letters regarding the zigzags. You are all adults. One letter should be sufficient. How many warnings do you think is appropriate?

Parents arrived before the buses, this will have been obvious by the lack of both buses and children.

Common sense means space for the coaches should have been left (unless the parents expected the children to abseil in which would be an awesome way to end the trip but also extremely unlikely....)

It's such a clear case of parents being unreasonable. In your position I would be majorly pissed at the selfish wankers for creating a situation that was unsafe.

[Notonthestairs]

There is no reason to park on the zig zags - ever - and certainly not for sleeping babies. Stop making excuses for poor driving.

[MidniteScribbler]

Common sense means space for the coaches should have been left

Sadly, when it comes to schools and carparking, there is very little of that to be had. Actually, when it comes to pretty much anything to do with schools, there is not much of it around either.

[MrsHathaway]

I imagine they're hoping peer pressure might now kick in.

[ToffeeUp]

And at what time should the member of staff has started directing traffic? I know people who happily arrive 30 minutes early to bag the closest parking spaces.

[chickenowner]

Toffee

That's a really good point. Having to release a teacher or TA from class 30 minutes before the end of the day is just crazy!

[roundaboutthetown]

Schools are not allowed to put cones out on the road. They may risk doing it for a limited amount of time in a limited area for a specific reason where they know the exact timings, but would not be able to risk it for several coaches that might be earlier than later than expected. Schools do know it is not allowed to put cones out on the road. What's more, I've known parents at my children's old primary get out and move the cones out of the way, just so that they can park on the School Keep Clear signs . Some parents are phenomenally selfish and happy to beat up anyone who asks them to park elsewhere...

[Funnyface1]

I don't blame the school one bit. Can you imagine if a child had been injured?

It's entirely the parents fault for parking like idiots and blocking the coaches out. Seriously entitled or just stupid?

If that had happened at my ds's school I'd have been so worried about the safety of those children I'd have been in to ask that they do something along the lines of what yours have done.

[TDHManchester]

If schools are finding it a problem, why not simply contact the local community police officer and arrange for them all to be filmed and ticketed? That should fix it. There are few things more selfish than a school run parent.

[roundaboutthetown]

If you are bothered by this, WhoWants2Know, you could always get a group of parent volunteers together and contact the local council to ask if it's possible to have the compulsory training that is required for insurance purposes (ie self protection) before anyone is allowed to help with directing traffic and children's road crossing, and then offer to stand outside the school yourself in a high vis jacket for a couple of hours after every school trip to ensure this doesn't happen again, and all children can then enjoy their pantomime again next year... I'm not sure how much the training would cost an academy school.

[roundaboutthetown]

And if parents are unreasonable enough to park dangerously outside their own children's school, you can guarantee they are also unreasonable enough to sue anyone who was trying to help at the time of the inevitable accident that will happen one day!

[Witchend]

assume that they have babies in the car that they don’t want to wake

So what? Having a sleeping baby in the car does not remove all responsibility for you to obey the traffic rules. If one of the children had been seriously injured or even killed due to their selfish parking, would you still think not waking a sleeping baby was worth that?

[WhoWants2Know]

The thing is, we all know that they shouldn’t park there. But several letters and threats of fines haven’t made them stop, then I don’t anticipate they’ll stop because a trip has been cancelled. Obviously it’s common sense not to park where coaches need to be, but if they had common sense than it wouldn’t be an issue. (I know I theorised about sleeping babies, and that’s just me trying to be charitable. Equally, they could be jerks or entitled or just not very clever. )

Of course I understand that coaches can be late and plays can overrun. It’s happened many times in the past. In those cases, the delay was communicated back to a member of staff at the school, who used the parent text system to instruct parents to come later. Parents weren’t waiting in freezing weather on those occasions because the school wasn’t closed.

On a daily basis, a member of staff (admin, I think) puts out cones in the morning and again at pick up to reserve a place on the zigzags for taxis and/or the swimming bus. This has been the case for years. It may be wrong, but it’s what they do, and people don’t park where the cones are.

So even knowing that the parking parents are wrong, I also feel that it wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t closed the school on a day when students would actually need to be on the premises. We’ve known about the repair issue for weeks, so it wasn’t an emergency. They could have had their trip and been picked up at the usual letting out time, and had the repair carried out on a day when kids aren’t there.

[MinorRSole]

Well the children weren't there as they were on a trip. Struggling to believe you weren't one of the zigzag brigade tbh. This was not the schools fault