McHenry County Blog

Dropping off kids at South Elementary School teaches one patience.

There is no place to pull into school from the street in front of the school on Golf Road. There is at other Crystal Lake Grade School District 47 schools. Think of Indian Prairie and, now, West Elementary School, for example.

Oh, there are two very rarely used handicapped parking places right in front of the main entrance, but their designed purpose is not to enable the delivery of children safely to school. Handicapped drivers rarely use them.

Since my son is not a mile and half away from the school, we have a choice.

He can walk, having to cross Lake Avenue with its over 6,000 vehicles a day with no stop signs, crossing guard or cross walk or I can drive him.

Before I bruised a bone in my foot, I liked to walk with him to school. We had some good conversations and even learned a lot of multiplication tables last year.

But when one reaches the block in front of South School, lots of people stop on the school side of the street and drop off their kids. Others park on the north side of the street, where it is illegal.

It works imperfectly, but it works.

Except when a Crystal Lake policeman is present enforcing the no parking laws.

Then the organized chaos that parents have learned to live with is disrupted, making a difficult task even more difficult.

Last week I was dropping my son off in front of the handicapped parking places in front of South Elementary School and there was a police car parked across the street with the window rolled down. (Hard to believe that it was that warm that recently.)

The officer probably told me that I shouldn’t drop my son off right in front of the school. I don’t remember.

(More on our conversation tomorrow.)

Anyway, I dropped my son off and drove away.

Tuesday, I drove up to the same spot and there was an officer standing in the middle of the handicapped parking places. He told me I couldn’t park and drop my son off there.

I figured he was talking about not parking in front of the handicapped spots, so I drove a couple of parking spaces—all filled, as was every space in sight—forward, stopped again and my third grader got out, making a very negative comment about “the police.”

I was stopped for less than 30 seconds, maybe less.

I don’t know why my son has a negative opinion about policemen. His outstanding Cub Scout Pack 158 leader, Brian Karr, is a Crystal Lake policeman.

Maybe he doesn’t make the connection between him in a Scout Leader uniform and his role as a policeman.

Maybe it’s the cartoons my son watches. I’ve noticed that they are not too kind to parents. (Think “Fairly Odd Parents.”) Maybe they denigrate other authority figures as well.

In any event, I have made significant efforts to counter that lack of respect, including punishing negative comments.

By then the handicapped space officer was approaching, obviously thinking I was deliberately disobeying his instruction.

I can see why he would think that. He was probably telling me that I could not let my 9-year old off anywhere in a lane of traffic. I obviously misinterpreted his message.

In any event he was writing me a $10 ticket, which did not go unnoticed by my son, who was by then on the sidewalk. Needless to say, I was not happy.

After my wife told me Monday that she saw a policeman and a woman arguing while the woman was unloading her car while parked in a handicapped parking space, I wonder if she got a ticket.

Athough my son had his second day of ISAT tests on Tuesday, the first thing he said when I picked him up was something else negative about police.

Apparently, the ticket giver made quite an impression on him.

I told my son the policeman was just doing his job, but that did not seem to satisfy him.

And, yes, I picked him up late enough to find a parking place to pull into after school.

From now on, he will be one of the last children left standing in front of South School waiting for a ride home.

I haven’t figured out how to find a morning parking place yet.

Tomorrow some suggestions on how to improve the traffic flow at South School.

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The top picture is of the new circular drive at West Elementary School. This picture shows that even a circular drive does not solve the problem. This line of cars is on Briarwood Drive south of West School. I guess the parents wait for their kids to walk to their cars.

The next picture shows cars parking on the north side of Golf Road, across the street from South School. The city council allows no parking there.

Next one can see a van picking up a child about where I usually have.

Interesting that the scanner won't pick up most of what the officer wrote on the ticket, isn't? There is something written in the box at the bottom that I can't read at all.

Labels: Crystal Lake Police, District 47, Indian Prairie Elementary School, ISAT, Parking Ticket, South Elementary School, West Elementary School