Happy first day of school, here’s your parking ticket

Some Philadelphia parents and teachers are not pleased with the city’s most efficient public servants.  

Why did parents and teachers receive tickets on the first day of school for parking in school zones?

Philadelphia Parking Authority Deputy Executive director Corrine O’Connor makes no apologies, saying the agency enforces the no parking rules during school hours to keep students safe.

“If a student needs to cross the street you don’t want to have vehicles parked too close to the corner. You have buses trying to turn, you also have school buses trying to unload in those areas,” said O’Connor. “If you have vehicles that are parked in those zones all day and a bus pulls up to unload then the students are unloading in the middle of the street.”

Many tickets were issued outside Bache-Martin School in the Fairmount neighborhood.  Parents say normally they’re not hassled when dropping off kids for the first day since students are carrying heavy backpacks with all the extra school supplies requested by teachers.

O’Connor says the parking authority’s enforcement agents give parents 20 minutes to get out of the area before writing tickets.