Children drop-off site at Chelsea school unsafe, parents say

Parents at Grand-Boisé school in Chelsea are asking the school board for a safer place to drop off and pick up their children, arguing that Scott Road — one of the town's main roads — is too hazardous.

More than 400 children are picked up and dropped off at the school on Scott Road, which is less than 100 metres from the Highway 5 on and offramps.

Some parents say vehicles often get off at the exit at high speeds.

"Every morning that I'm there I cringe because I'm afraid someone is going to hit me or I'm going to hit someone," says Céline Nadreau, president of the school's parent-teacher board.

"It's very dangerous for the children, it's dangerous for the staff, people are hostile. And it has to change."

Nadreau says that because it's a rural area, many of the children don't use school buses and are driven in and out by their parents.

Parents have collected about 200 signatures in recent days and on Wednesday night they pressed the school board — commission scolaire des Portages-de-l'Outaouais — to invest in a solution.

Parent Christie Spence says the issue of who will pay for a safe drop off area has become a hot potato.

"Are they waiting for an accident to happen? Because I think that's the fear. I mean sure, if some kid gets hurt or killed I think things will mobilize very quickly, and of course nobody wants that to happen and of course nobody wants it to be their own child," Spence says.

"But it's not just that. It's causing conflicts between the parents and the teachers, it's causing traffic for bicyclists going by. Anyone who's using that road, which is almost everybody in Chelsea at that period, is at risk somehow."

The school board says it has other pressing issues to invest in, such as leaking roofs in some of its 25 schools, but says it will discuss the issue.