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?

Parents park like idiots.
School have to adapt their actions to deal with people parking like idiots.

They can't force people not to be idiots and as ever in life decisions have to he mad to fit around the idiots (so ruining things for others).

letters also sent out at my local school, all because of inconsiderate, selfish, twatty parents. Seems an epidemic problem !!! the zig zags are there for a reason DO NOT PARK YOUR STUPID CAR THERE AS YOU WILL BLOCK THE ROAD AND ENDANGER THE CHILDREN. but the rules dont apply to some. I dont blame your school at all for cancelling the panto next year. Because of brain dead retarded individuals, the pick up zone becomes a danger zone. Its a no brainer !! and clearly there are many who really dont know how to use one

I’m not one of the zigzag brigade. I live near enough to walk, and if I drove then I’d end up parking further away than my house.

The kids were in the school in the morning and again after they got back off of the coaches. But none of the staff that usually occupy the school during school trips were present, and that did contribute to the situation. That’s why we didn’t know they were running late, and why parking for the coaches wasn’t coned off. If something more serious had happened (like on a previous trip where a bus broke down) we wouldn’t have known.

I can't believe you're still arguing about this and blaming the school.

WhoWants2Know - stop trying to offload the problem onto the staff. The school was empty of children today, so it sounds like it was a good time to get the repair done without paying someone to go in during school holidays to let the builders in and supervise them (school staff do not get paid for working in school holidays) and they may well have had a good reason to want or need the work done before Christmas and more bad weather. I should imagine there were arrangements in place to contact parents if necessary, but it should not be necessary to contact parents to tell them not to break the law, nor to break the law by putting illegal cones out. If there was a lot of work going on inside the school at the time, you shouldn't expect the poor bloody admin staff to also be leaping about outside, putting out illegal cones and arguing with parents who should behave better and stop causing obstructions and dangerous situations. Whose bloody kids are they at the end of the day? Parents should take better care of them themselves, instead of doing their best to run them over and then blame the school for not getting them to behave themselves.

They were 15 minutes late - get a grip! You don't need updating for such a short amount of time

Look at it from the schools point of view.

Whatever they say in letters etc these thoughtless, selfish parents will ignore them and park illegally. The police don't have the resources to send people out. The teachers who you suggest could be policing the traffic are not insured to do so (it's not school premises) and will be setting up, marking and planning for the following day.

My only suggestion would be that the majority of parents, who are obeying the law, set up a rota to monitor the front and confront the illegally parking parents. Take photos and post them on the local facebook group, tweet them, instagram the, etc
These people might respond to naming and shaming - they're obviously thick skinned as they've ignore numerous letters form the school about the subject.

Oh. I didn’t realise having a baby means people can park where the hell they like regardless.

Is this free pass just for traffic offensive or does it apply for all laws? Because if it does it might be worth my while having another baby

Ffs the poor school can do no right can it? 🙄

In my London borough all schools have council funded cameras outside the school. Park on zigzag lines during school hours and you receive a fine. Problem solved. What it hasn't solved is parking across driveways of houses opposite my school. Traffic wardens are also around to try and deal with these parents.

Ffs the poor school can do no right can it?
Isn't that standard for school threads?

we put out cones to ensure that coaches have a "dropping off space" and parents have just driven over the cones!

Ffs op are you sure you don't park there? You seem oddly devoted to the cause of blaming the school. You're wrong.

My friends little girl got hit by a car that had parked on the zig zags - they are there for a reason.
If the school cant ensure children are safe then they have no choice but to cancel.

The simple spoliation would have been to tell those blocking the road that no child was getting off the coach until those cars were moved. I can’t believe the school let the kids out onto the road.

I don’t blame them for cancelling the trip. Of course the sins of a few spoiled it for many, it you said it yourself, you all watched it happening and nobody said a word.

I think I would have got one member of staff to disembark, send the coach off somewhere safe but unknown to the parents/taxis and tell them that the coach would only return once it was safe for the children to disembark, which would mean them all moving!

If there were several hundred kids they probably don't have enough cones to cone off all that space.

They shouldn't need cones they've already got something on the road telling people not to park there - zigzags!

When DD was at primary we had the same problem weekly when kids were brought back from swimming every week. One magnificent day the driver abandoned his coach, stormed into the playground and yelled that in exactly 3 minutes time he was driving up the road and if he happened to knock wing-mirrors off and scrape the sides of cars, well, that was just unfortunate. You've never seen people move so fast 😂😂😂

Definitely not any fault of the schools, no matter how hard the OP tries to blame them.
OP they deal with the people who park badly, and the people who blame the school for the bad parking (you). They were 100% right to camcel future trips. They can't do right for doing wrong in the eyes of the parents. The only choice is to do nothing.

Zig zag parkers give me a twitch even if it's just one, it's clear it obstructs the rd and they are there for a good reason.

Everyday when I drive to do school pick up I drive past a high school and the road in front is full of people parked, picking up or dropping off their dc on these zig zags, the rd is already a bottle neck with a right of way at one end, dangerous in many ways especially as teens just seem to float about the rds without a care in the world.
There's a perfectly good car park with a pick up and drop off zone conveniently with a roundabout next to the school that no one seems to use.

As annoying as it may be I think the school made a point.

The school my 2 ds attended had to call Police and parents were fined, it worked for a while and then they had to come back.
A child was injured and there were so many near misses.
In addition to this they'd drive straight over a crossing in between the zig zags and round the lollipop man.
I kid you not.
Those parents were cunts and shouldn't be driving.

As far as I can see, every poster has said the selfish parents are at fault, not the school. There's your answer. By ignoring all the posters, you are as bad as those parents.

I live next to a school road and have seen some shocking parking when my DS are walking off to school of a morning.

I drove to primary for 8 years and never thought it was OK to park on zigzags with kids around. You seem very blase about this.

Every trip run by a school has to have been risk assessed and the paperwork filled in.

These parents have ensured that the school cannot run such trips any longer as their risk assessment will have to show there is a realistic danger of injury to a child if they have to weave through cars to get off the road. No school will be prepared to risk this - they would be absolutely crucified if the worst happened.

This doesn't happen at our school so I'd say its the parents. Our headteacher stands outside the school and tells off anyone trying to park like a twat. I would never dream of parking on zig zags.