Ocoee police crack down on pickup problems near elementary school

Parents warned about blocking driveways, mailboxes

OCOEE, Fla. – Parents looking for a shortcut to pick up their children from an Ocoee elementary school are causing problems for a nearby neighborhood, according to residents and Ocoee police.

The dead-end residential street Rich Drive quickly fills up with cars every weekday around 3 p.m., when students are dismissed from Prairie Lake Elementary School.

Resident Sonny Hensel has watched for years as the cars take up most of the road and sometimes block his driveway. 

"It becomes a hassle sometimes because I have to wait at the end of the road just for traffic to come out," Hensel said.

The parking situation in this neighborhood has gotten so bad that U.S. postal workers can't deliver people's mail because cars are blocking mailboxes.

"I haven't seen my mail in a couple days, to be honest," Hensel said. 

One postal worker told News 6 he tries to adjust his route to avoid those parents in the afternoon, but sometimes it's inevitable that he will end up weaving through all the parked cars.

This postal concern along with similar problems at other schools, is why Ocoee police released a bulletin, asking parents to avoid using these kinds of shortcuts for the school pickup line.

ATTENTION: Prairie Lake Elementary SCHOOL PARENTS Recently, one of the neighbors on RICH DRIVE had their mail held as...

Posted by Ocoee Police Department on Wednesday, January 16, 2019

"Parents find creative ways to park and have their kids walk to school," Ocoee police Deputy Chief Stephen McCosker said.  "It becomes a big issue when we have to start dealing with parking issues. It takes away from the enforcement of the school zones."  

Orange County Public Schools released the following statement: 

Orange County Public Schools works hard to maintain positive community support and work with our neighbors to ensure the safe and efficient drop off and departure of students.  To accomplish this we use strategies, such as double-stacked vehicular traffic in the student pick-up area.  Using this method the school is able to safely dismiss more than 900 students in less than 20 minutes each day. Some drivers transporting students after school arrive up to an hour prior to dismissal. We encourage all drivers to maintain a “No Idle Zone,” and remind them to be kind and courteous to the community by not blocking mailboxes or driveways.   


About the Author:

It has been an absolute pleasure for Clay LePard living and working in Orlando since he joined News 6 in July 2017. Previously, Clay worked at WNEP TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he brought viewers along to witness everything from unprecedented access to the Tobyhanna Army Depot to an interview with convicted double-murderer Hugo Selenski.

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