petition “Require all coats for school age children to have reflective strips”

[Doyouneedanumber]

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/756899

Can I ask you all to please consider signing and sharing this please!

I can’t bring myself to be bothered about this. Sorry

If parents feel this is needed, why not just buy a coat with reflective strips or sew some on?

All coats for school age children should have reflective strips? Utterly nonsense. Not surprised you have 34 signatures.

Don't be rediculous.

Why? I’m not going to click on it but have you outlined how many kids each year and injured due to lack of reflective strips?

It’s a pain in the arse to sort, you’d no doubt ask teachers to police this and they have enough to do, what if your kid isn’t wearing their coat? And what if you can only afford one coat? They’d then have to wear it everywhere, including if they go to a funeral or something. A lot of kids will absolutely refuse to wear it.

If your kid is walking a badly lit route then get them, but loads of kids really don’t need it.

I actually agree and have said this for years. Why would anyone be against a safety measure for their children?

Then you go and sew reflective strips on your kid’s clothes. No one is stopping you.

How would this work though? Who’s supposed to put the reflective strips on? The clothing companies? What if parents can’t afford a new coat and rely on hand me downs, what if the hand me downs don’t have reflective strips on?

I don’t really think a petition is necessary but don’t know why you think teachers would be policing it. It would be a regulation on what can be sold in shops, like any safety regulation for clothing (I think clothing for small children can’t have drawstring hoods, for example).

I never buy dark, non reflective coats for my DC.

The problem is not everyone can or is willing to do this. All children need to be protected and I'm quite shocked people are against this.

This seems like it will most effect secondary school children who travel to and from school on their own. Surely many of them will be wearing adult sizes though?

OP is suggesting a 16 year old shouldn’t be able to wear any coat or jacket that doesn’t have a reflective strip? You genuinely think that’s reasonable?

Parents can do this if they wish, but to make it a legal requirement is absurd.

Actually, she’s suggesting that coats sold in children’s sizes be required to have reflective strips. Which is slightly different.

You could add to ensure that secondary schools do not make pupils wear only black or navy coats.

I think every single coat and bag should have something reflective on it. But I'm someone who tends to use their legs so I care about pedestrian safety and want to make it a bit less stressful for drivers too.

In Estonia it's mandatory in winter for everybody outside to wear a reflector. They have small, reflective disks which can be hung from a pocket, coat or bag and must be clearly visible.
Seems a very sensible approach to me.

I’d just be pleased if any of the kids at our school wore a bloody coat in the first place. That’s hard enough to enforce on the coldest of days as it is.

No. For goodness sake. If manufacturers are going to be legally obligated to optimise children's safety via their products, don't you think it would be better to start off by getting them not to flog toxic UPF instead of wholesome food, or to stop making disposable vapes, or to lay off the algorithms that are pulling kids into social media nightmares?

The priority is to stop them pushing destructive stuff. Beyond that, we can leave it to market forces, with safety-conscious parents incentivising safety conscious coat design via their purchasing decisions.

You realise that a whole loads of school aged kids wear adult clothing? Yes? So who is going to police that?

And lots of people buy clothing from abroad, or move here from abroad, or wear hand me downs for years and years in families. Who is going to police that?

Manufacturers will also start calling things something other than a coat, they’ll be redesigned and changed to things like “waterproof cardigans” instead of raincoats. It’s literally not going to happen.

That, I would agree with. But I don’t agree with forcing parents to modify clothes or forcing clothing companies to change manufacturing and then send millions of items of clothing to landfill because they can no longer be worn.

Yes I realise that. But OP is not suggesting that children be banned from wearing non reflective coats - it’s not the children who would be being policed. It would be the sale of the clothing.

There are plenty of regulations on children’s clothing. I was aware of the no drawstring hoods for 7 and under, but I’ve just looked up a few more and there are regulations on specifics for drawstrings for 7-14 yr olds (they’re allowed but have to meet criteria), on how securely small parts like sequins have to be attached, children’s nightwear must meet flammability requirements. No one polices the child in these cases, what is restricted is the products sold.

Should we do away with the flammability criteria for children’s nightwear because some children wear adult sizes and some children are visiting from abroad?

Are people suggesting the children would be policed being deliberately obtuse?

Most secondary school children seem to regard it as a badge of honour to never wear a coat anyway.