Trouble at the school gates!!

bjork · 29-01-2015 11:45AM #1

Not the teachers or the students but down right unruly bad mannered parents.

It stated parents are "driving carelessly" and "parking in a dangerous manner" in bus lanes and on footpaths in close vicinity to the school.

The letter also claimed the traffic warden, who works in the area, has been subjected to verbal abuse on a number of occasions from a small minority of parents.

"Instances have occurred where the lollipop lady have been verbally abused by parents and also has had parents not obey her duties helping your children cross the road safely to school.

"Gardai have been present outside your children's school in the morning and afternoon in the last school year and have verbally warned parents about the dangers they are creating outside the school.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/lollipop-lady-verbally-abused-by-parents-dropping-children-off-at-school-gardai-say-30947464.html via @Independent_ie

Now the Gardai have to waste their time with these idiots. It happens outside virtually every school in the country.

Why so many driving to school? Why be an obnoxious idiot when you do? Have newer schools factored in cars when building?

The Peanut · 29-01-2015 11:53AM

We introduced a walk to school initiative in our school for this reason. Parents park back in designated spots - between 250-500m from the school - to ensure this doesn't happen. Kids were all given be-safe bibs in an attempt to get them to exercise and learn the rules of the road. Kids are very positive about it and love the walk.

The worst that happens is they get wet, like must of us would have.

Edit; should say it isn't the biggest school in the world - about 200 kids - so it's feasible to do it.

K4t · 29-01-2015 11:53AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5CjD5A8UDQ

Menas · 29-01-2015 11:54AM

Have these people never seen the Desperate housewives episode about the school drop?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA2VsGKFFko

kirving · 29-01-2015 11:59AM

Verbal warning is useless. A ticket and penalty points for every single driver dangerous parking would solve a lot of it.

shruikan2553 · 29-01-2015 12:05PM

The problem isnt people driving, the problem is people being absolute ***** and thinking they are the most important person and are only holding others up for a "second", I lived outside of a school on a one way street, the idea of pulling in to get out of the way is about as existent as them pulling out when having sex.

Issue tickets for obstructing the flow of traffic or something. It's the only thing some of them will understand and if they dont well then at least money is being made.

The_Valeyard · 29-01-2015 12:05PM

I know on one of the roads to work, the whole thing is blocked with parents parking wherever the f*ck they want, blocking the road and in some cases, parking the car on the road, letting out their kids out of the car, walking to the school gates and then going back to the car!!! Some then even try a U-turn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

El Weirdo · 29-01-2015 12:11PM

Instances have occurred where the lollipop lady have been verbally abused by parents and also has had parents not obey her duties helping your children cross the road safely to school.

If that's a verbatim quote from a letter written by a teacher in that school, I'd be more worried about the standard of education the kids are receiving.

foxy06 · 29-01-2015 12:12PM

You should see Bray. 4 schools on one very narrow road and two more schools about 400 metres also. it is complete mayhem. I like to walk them but on mornings like today I drive but have to leave very early to get an actual parking spot. I hate mornings.

Meathlass · 29-01-2015 12:15PM

I work in a building which shares its grounds and single entrance with a secondary school. Staff can drive in but parents generally just double park outside blocking the main road, the entrance and the flow of traffic. Trying to get out at 6pm is almost as bad as they double park blocking views of the road while waiting for their darlings to come out of study.

anncoates · 29-01-2015 12:16PM

Would love to walk my kids to school but not possible because it's along country roads about 2 miles away.

Maybe I'm lucky, nobody seems to park like a cnut there.

The Peanut · 29-01-2015 12:22PM

anncoates wrote: »

Would love to walk my kids to school but not possible because it's along country roads about 2 miles away.

Maybe I'm lucky, nobody seems to park like a cnut there.

I'm in a similar position and that's one of the reasons I think that most people here have bought into improving the parking. We don't have a stressful drive to get there and we're not facing a traffic-heavy drive to work or home afterwards.

Parents in the bigger towns and cities are probably more stressed from traffic; still needs to be improved upon though.

snubbleste · 29-01-2015 12:23PM

El Weirdo wrote: »

If that's a verbatim quote from a letter written by a teacher in that school, I'd be more worried about the standard of education the kids are receiving.

Ah no. It's from a Garda.

Menas · 29-01-2015 12:24PM

anncoates wrote: »

Would love to walk my kids to school but not possible because it's along country roads about 2 miles away.

Maybe I'm lucky, nobody seems to park like a cnut there.

There is a small primary school about 100 yards from us. It is always over subscribed so 99% of the students are from the catchment area - it within a few streets of the school.
But still every morning, rain or shine, the yummy mummy brigade DRIVE their little precious darlings the 100 yards to school.

Have people forgotten how to walk?

seamus · 29-01-2015 12:25PM

Parents on the school run qualify as temporarily insane. They do things they wouldn't dream of doing in any other scenario.

As a parent I actually understand the "rest of the world can bite me", mentality, but that doesn't mean I condone it or partake in it.

The only way it can be curbed is actual enforcement. Garda at the gates, every day for a month and then one random day a week after that. Be brutal and inflexible, handing out fines all over the place. The sight of Mary from the church getting cuffed against the side of her Qashqai because she lost the head with the Garda would scare everyone else into line.

Asking them nicely to stop it will not work because if they were nice people they wouldn't do it in the first place.

RacoonQueen · 29-01-2015 12:29PM

There is a petrol station about 400m, if even from a school I pass. I remember one day letting a car out of the petrol station. Traffic was heavy and crawling. About 15m from the school gate a kid gets out and yer man does a u-turn. I mean seriously. WTF? It was a secondary school, could the TEENAGER not walk a few hundred metres on his own?

Shiraz 4.99 · 29-01-2015 12:31PM

We have a bollarded off drop off lane & they park in that.
We've a roundabout in the car park to facilitate cars dropping off & leaving & they park in that.
I've given up.

thelad95 · 29-01-2015 12:34PM

This was a big problem in my local primary school and guess what happened? A child was knocked down. Thankfully he survived and for a few weeks, things calmed down. More children were walked to school by their parents and a scheme was introduced where teachers would help students across the road. Cars parked sensibly and people actually practised common courtesy in letting others out etc.

However, things are back to being as bad as ever and it's only a matter of time before there is another incident. What's the worst is the Mammys who live literally five minutes walk away but still drive up to the school in their Landrover to pick up their little shíts, clogging the whole place up and often doing stupid things like U-turns in the school gate (which children are coming out of) and parking in the middle of the road.

El Weirdo · 29-01-2015 12:34PM

snubbleste wrote: »

Ah no. It's from a Garda.

So I see. To be expected then, I suppose.

The Peanut · 29-01-2015 12:34PM

RacoonQueen wrote: »

There is a petrol station about 400m, if even from a school I pass. I remember one day letting a car out of the petrol station. Traffic was heavy and crawling. About 15m from the school gate a kid gets out and yer man does a u-turn. I mean seriously. WTF? It was a secondary school, could the TEENAGER not walk a few hundred metres on his own?

I've noticed a teenager driving a car from one end of our village to the school bus stop; no more than 1km. His mother then walks down later on the same day and collects the car.

Do parents not realise the damage they're doing to these kids. It is sending out all the wrong messages on so many levels.

Vel · 29-01-2015 12:46PM

Trigger Happy wrote: »

There is a small primary school about 100 yards from us. It is always over subscribed so 99% of the students are from the catchment area - it within a few streets of the school.
But still every morning, rain or shine, the yummy mummy brigade DRIVE their little precious darlings the 100 yards to school.

Have people forgotten how to walk?

I used to think like this before I had kids, and honestly I would much rather we could walk our son to school, and we do when we can, but currently he gets dropped off by his father on his way to work. Both of us work and I think many parents are in the position that they are only able to drop the kid on their journey there.

For those who don't work, live close by and where there are no other extenuating circumstances for why they can't bring their child by foot, other than laziness, then yeah, they should all be burned at the stake!

andyman · 29-01-2015 12:49PM

El Weirdo wrote: »

If that's a verbatim quote from a letter written by a teacher in that school, I'd be more worried about the standard of education the kids are receiving.

You'd be more worried about the education than the kids watching these parents ignoring basic child safety protocols and dishing out abuse to the people trying to keep children safe?

seamus · 29-01-2015 12:52PM

Vel wrote: »

I used to think like this before I had kids, and honestly I would much rather we could walk our son to school, and we do when we can, but currently he gets dropped off by his father on his way to work. Both of us work and I think many parents are in the position that they are only able to drop the kid on their journey there.

For those who don't work, live close by and where there are no other extenuating circumstances for why they can't bring their child by foot, other than laziness, then yeah, they should all be burned at the stake!

I don't have any major issue with that except for the necessity of dropping them at all. My secondary school was literally on my Dad's way to work - he drove right by the gates every morning. The rule was that if you could get your arse out of bed and ready by 8:15, you could have a lift. Otherwise he was gone.

I think in six years I managed to make that lift about five times. The rest of the time I made my own way there. Because I was old enough to do so.

In primary school from the age of about 8, I took myself off to school every day. A 25 minute walk mostly through estates, but some main roads. My mum would drive on rainy days, but literally only for half of the journey (through the estates), not to the school gate.

The problem in this day and age is excuses. You don't have to drop your child off on the way to work. If your child is 8 or older and you live less than 2km from the school, then they're old enough to get themselves to the school gates. There is no good reason to drive them there.
Take pity on them if it's raining or cold, but otherwise send them off to school in a group of four or five and they'll be fine.

There's probably a really good argument for having the four youngest classes start @ 8am and finish at 1pm, as this would mean that those parents can leave an hour earlier and not clog up the roads when the rest of the world is trying to get to work. If they really have to drive their older children to school, then their older children can be early for school.

Hannibal Smith · 29-01-2015 12:57PM

We live between a secondary school and a primary one. Parents doing the drop were crazy. In the mornings I'm trying to get out of the driveway, they will happily and knowingly block me in. On the main road the sometimes parallel park, but if there's not enough room they'll just stick the nose of the car in the space so they back end is out blocking the road. Then there's the u turn to cause further chaos. The excuse that its 'just for a second' is BS. In that second other people with commitments just as important as the parents are trying to use the road too.

NSAman · 29-01-2015 12:58PM

What is wrong with these people?

In all the years in school (in rural and major towns) I got dropped to school a total of ZERO times. In the country I cycled to school from ages 7 onwards we lived 3 miles from the school. in the large towns and cities we lived between a mile and two miles from schools. We walked.

I see it every damned day, parents who need a good bloody walk themselves and lots of exercise driving instead of walking the kids to school. The local schools are literally within view of our estate we live in. There is one particular"housewife" who drives the kids every day. It would take a maximum of a 10 minute walk to get to school I say MAXIMUM. The same woman (who must be late 20's) needs LOTS of exercise and the kids are starting to look the same way..... shameful that parents cannot treat their kids to respect themselves and others.

Cu Baire · 29-01-2015 01:01PM

The Peanut wrote: »

I've noticed a teenager driving a car from one end of our village to the school bus stop; no more than 1km. His mother then walks down later on the same day and collects the car.

Do parents not realise the damage they're doing to these kids. It is sending out all the wrong messages on so many levels.

If the kid is driving I assume he is in Leaving Cert. In fairness have you seen the weight of the schoolbags these students are expected to bring to and from school everyday. Most of them need to bring more than one bag and no one could carry them for a km without causing spinal injury. Well maybe an Army Ranger could.

I agree about the horrendous driver behaviour outside schools though.

bjork · 29-01-2015 01:01PM

Are school buses still a thing?

or lockers?

snubbleste · 29-01-2015 01:02PM

Hey I'm entitled to escort my precious progeny in my chelsea tractor and plonk it wherever I damn please.

eviltimeban · 29-01-2015 01:03PM

seamus wrote: »

If your child is 8 or older and you live less than 2km from the school, then they're old enough to get themselves to the school gates. .

Well, if only that were true... but it wouldn't happen. My eldest is 8 this year and there's no way I'd send him the 1.8 miles to the school on his own. He's just too young. He has a younger brother anyway so I still need to drive them. By the time they are 11 - 12 (5th or 6th class) I can see them cycling, there's a good cycle route outside which is all the way down, lights to cross at, etc. But for now the lift is still needed.

However our school issued rules to say don't park here or there, which I abide by. There's a big green where we can park around and walk a little up the road to drop them in. It infuriates me when I see the moms pull up outside and stop / park OVER the painted lines saying "no parking" or park in the "Coach" parking spot. Why oh why? It takes seconds to walk up and it's safer, plus there is actually more space available and it's easier to get in and out from.

Giving abuse to a lollipop lady just takes the biscuit though.

NSAman · 29-01-2015 01:05PM

snubbleste wrote: »

Hey I'm entitled to escort my precious progeny in my chelsea tractor and plonk it wherever I damn please.

How is Tarquin?

The Peanut · 29-01-2015 01:06PM

Cu Baire wrote: »

If the kid is driving I assume he is in Leaving Cert. In fairness have you seen the weight of the schoolbags these students are expected to bring to and from school everyday. Most of them need to bring more than one bag and no one could carry them for a km without causing spinal injury. Well maybe an Army Ranger could.

Most of the other kids walk. Many cycle from miles around with the bags, no complaints. Let him cycle if they're too heavy. There are little old ladies walking the distances with 2 full shopping bags.

He's an adult at 18, treat him like one. They are growing up mollycoddled.

Trouble at the school gates!!

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