“We live right beside a small country school that teach grades 1-12 and across the highway from our home is the new & old gym, baseball field and small school parking lot. The school, teachers parking area and auditorium are separated by OUR chain link fence which is approximately built on 5 feet this side of our property, and is absolutely as close as you can get to our home and driveway. The playground is 50 yards northeast of our property behind the school auditorium. Need I say it’s always loud. I am exhausted with parents pulling into our driveway, starting at 7:30am, to keep from driving a short 20 yards further south to turn around where they are SUPPOSED to make a circle and proceed to the school to drop their children off at the school’s designated area. Parents have been doing this since we started building our home after having an older home torn down and we moved into a camper till our home here is completely built. We have a chain link fence across the front of our property and a gate, which we keep open. I had to call the Sheriffs office several times when we first moved back here because parents were pulling into our property and also parking in our front yard up to our chain link fence…and when it was raining they’d get stuck and tear our yard and property up, making deep ruts in the grass and didn’t care…because it WAS NOT THEIR PROPERTY. We’ve had a sign staked by our gate and fence for years that states “PLEASE DO NOT BLOCK OUR DRIVEWAY…Thank You”. We have parents pulling in, dropping their children off, then backing out onto the highway (very dangerous), parents are making a circle drive around our garbage can, which I leave out front, parents are making 3 point turns over my ground lights and flower beds and breaking the lights, running over my flowers and almost hitting our mailbox, hitting our garbage can and when they park on the roadside to the north of our driveway I can’t see to pull out of my own driveway. There’s also a sign on the Cable pole stating “NO PARKING TO THE RIGHT IF THIS SIGN” which means “not on our property”. I don’t think these people can read. There is a school sheriffs resource officer that couldn’t care any less. I called the state troopers office a few times and they asked why the county sheriff’s department weren’t handling the problem and I told them it was because it wasn’t their driveway…which is true, and that they really weren’t doing anything these last several years to stop it because it wasn’t THEIR DRIVEWAY. A state trooper did come one morning and watched the traffic and the parents did not pull in my driveway. When he didn’t continue to check occasionally parents started pulling into my driveway again and doing the same. When the county schools have teacher conferences some of the teachers just come in and park in our driveway. In front of our cattle trailer, and block us in. That’s where I went a little bit over the edge. I told them all to move their vehicles off our private property, that belonged to US not the school and to look at our home being built, our cattle truck, my Alabama sign stating this was an Equine property and on their way out to notice the sign that they didn’t read while driving into our property. I’ve called the school till they won’t answer my calls anymore probably because they have caller ID. I’ve also had older kids come right up our driveway and try to go into our barn. I happened to be outside and asked them what they thought they were doing. They “said” they thought it was school property. I said “ and the school has a barn, horses, cattle trailer and a home being built here…and a vegetable garden?” They said we will just go around the back to the school…and I told them nope, I was escorting them out of my driveway and they were to go to the office and tell the principal they were going into my barn or I’d call the sheriff. I didn’t hear from anyone. THE SCHOOL DID NOT CARE. I should’ve called the sheriff after I thought about it. This has happened twice. My husband caught some boys in our barn and he got that taken care of real quick. Got their names, knew some of the parents, hasn’t happened since. Now…in the afternoons there’s the same problem plus another. Parents, in my opinion, start getting to school at 1:30pm to park at the church building property and connects on the south of our property so they can be first to get in line to pick their children up at 3:00 pm. I think I’d have better things to do with my time than to wait that long. When the buses get in line at the school, these parents start getting in line on the highway…blocking highway traffic AND POSSIBLY STOPPING EMERGENCY vehicles, and they form a line, sitting in front of my driveway sometimes 15 minutes and I’ve counted as many as approximately 20 vehicles sitting on the highway, blocking it and my driveway as they circle through the parking lot of the church building waiting on their children to dismiss at 3:00 after the busses load to depart. After those children are picked up, here come the stragglers…who I consider the opposite of the early OCD drivers, who think they’ve got the right to pull in my driveway to pick up their children or just turn around, or circle around my garbage can breaking my ground lights ….again. Does ANYONE have a solution? When there’s a function or ballgame it’s the same on those nights and SATURDAYS and I won’t EVEN explain what a mess GRADUATION is. My mailbox is blocked, I try to just leave but can’t see to get out, people walking across my yard, throwing down trash and the next day there are at least a couple of hundred cigarette butts in my yard that I get to mow over in the spring and then get to pick up the filters and trash thrown away besides adults throwing them over my chain link fence on my property. We have a dog that has a collar to keep it within a certain boundary of our property and I caught an 11 year old boy climbing our fence barking at it …he didn’t know my husband was in his car and saw him almost jumping over our fence as the kid was tormenting our dog. It’d never barked at the children before. I had had it. I went out and walked around our cattle trailer and said, “ STOP…barking at our dog and get off our fence” and he jumped down, said something and kicked the vehicle by the auditorium in the side door. Then a month later in our back yard he and another young boy came onto our property and were crouched down growling at our dog. Mind you, our dog has only a certain yardage of area that it can be on before it gets a warning beep before stepping further and getting a shock. This is for its protection because of the school and the highway. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE someone help me. I’m at my wits end. I won’t go to court. There’s nothing the school principal, superintendent, sheriffs office will do. I’ve thought I’d just go sit in these people’s driveways and see what they think. “
Rewritten with paragraphs, courtesy of ChatGPT:
Living next to a small country school teaching grades 1-12 poses numerous challenges for us. Directly across the highway from our home stands the new and old gym, baseball field, and small school parking lot. Our property is separated from the school grounds by a chain-link fence, approximately five feet within our boundaries, making it as close to our home and driveway as possible. The constant noise from the nearby playground, located 50 yards northeast behind the school auditorium, adds to the disruption.
The morning chaos begins at 7:30 am when parents start pulling into our driveway instead of following the designated route just a short distance away. This has been a recurring issue since we began building our home, leading to numerous confrontations and damages to our property. Despite displaying a sign requesting not to block our driveway, parents continue to disregard it, causing inconvenience and safety hazards.
In addition to blocking our driveway, parents create further problems by making unsafe maneuvers such as backing out onto the highway, performing 3-point turns over our property, and parking in prohibited areas indicated by signs. Despite our efforts to address these concerns with local authorities, including the school’s resource officer and the sheriff’s department, little action has been taken to resolve the situation.
Teacher conferences exacerbate the situation as some teachers park in our driveway, blocking us in without consideration for our property rights. Frustrated by the lack of response, I confronted them, asserting our ownership and demanding they respect our property boundaries.
The afternoon rush presents another set of challenges as parents arrive early to secure parking at a nearby church property, causing traffic congestion and obstructing emergency access. This behavior continues as parents form lines along the highway, blocking traffic and our driveway while waiting for school dismissal.
The situation escalates during school functions, ballgames, and graduations, resulting in further disruptions and damages to our property. Trash left behind, including cigarette butts thrown over our fence, adds to the frustration. Incidents of trespassing and harassment of our dog by school children highlight the ongoing disregard for our property and safety.
Despite numerous attempts to address these issues through legal channels and communication with school officials, the situation remains unresolved. I feel helpless and frustrated, unsure of where to turn for assistance. Sitting in their driveways to experience the inconvenience firsthand seems like a last resort, reflecting the desperation caused by the persistent disregard for our rights and property.
Oh, the joys of living next to a school. There’s nothing unique to your situation, and it’s a problem that’s been in search of a solution for decades for virtually every neighborhood school. Now you know why you got the deal you got on the property, since I dont know why else you’d choose to live next to a school. There’s no getting rid of the problem, you can only hope ot curtail it a bit.
Instead of asking please, did you ever think to post straight-to-the-point “do not enter”, “private property”, or “no tresspassing” signs? Put up cameras at your fence to get license plates of the cars that do tresspass and cause damage, then file claims against them? Maybe a big “tresspassers will be shot” sign (that might get the school’s attention more)? Even sit at the gate (on your property) innocently holding a shotgun? Did you actually call the county sheriff, or just complain to the school resource officer?
I tend to enjoy the effects of spike strips…
And definitely get a tow company on speed dial. They bill the car, not the caller.
The property has been in my husbands family for over 100 years. His mom lived here til she passed and we couldn’t repair her home without spending a fortune so we moved here and are building. My husband went to school here. I went to the city school in our county. Things are definitely different nowadays. I’ve talked to every principal, the sherriffs office won’t do anything do I did call the Troopers Office and they asked what the sheriffs office was doing and I said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING because it’s NOT THEIR DRIVEWAY. Once someone parked halfway in our driveway and my husband got his chain and pulled them out into the road. A deputy was passing that we both knew (it was 15 years ago and he’s retired now) and he just passed on by. A smart mouth millennial parked sideways when my husband was trying to exit , he got out and told her to move, she said “make me”….oh…it did not end well. He was in a 4 wheel drive mud truck and said fine …you’d better move or get out because you’re on my property your car is about to be crushed. She tried to get out of our driveway and just in time he barely hit her bumper. She didn’t do that anymore. But these idiot parents now can’t read the signs and do not care. Neither does the County Sheriff office. It’s Not their driveway. I know it’s happening several places. There’s no respect.
Time to build a gate.
It’s gotten pretty crazy. Most schools were built under a paradigm in which only a tiny fraction of students got picked up or dropped off in a private car- usually because they were disabled. It’s not sustainable for everyone to do so without parking.
It’s a big problem in urban New Orleans where I live.
She’s got one. Just doesnt want to close it.
I’m sure your husband had somewhere to be, but ideally you’d just let that kid park and leave their car, and make sure the car has disappeared when they get back. Even just blocking your driveway, not parked on your property, is a tow-able offense. Although depending on your local laws it may first require a ticket.
Ultimately, that’s what it will take, either scaring them or making it expensive. Although ideally, involving a private tow truck because that adds a tangible price to their stupidity. But unfortunately, for every idiot you fix, there’s 3 more waiting to take their place.
Got a local newspaper? Or a regional paper, since truly local reporters might be reluctant to piss off the sheriff or school? That’d make a good story for an ambitious reporter, between the conditions being created by the school and the lack of response from the local authorities. It wont solve the problems, but public embarassment will mitigate them to some extent.
While waiting on a deputy to give a ticket we STILL couldn’t have gotten out of our driveway. I had the gate closed when I’d come to feed my horses (I fed every day morning and night) in winter) before we moved back there to build. The barn is 100 yards from our gate. My deceased mother in law’s home was still there and the grass was always mowed. The sign was VISABLE. “PLEASE DO NOT BLOCK OUR DRIVEWAY…THANK YOU”. It was in the middle of our gate. It had been used as target practice…knowing I had HORSES on the property. There were 5 vehicles parked facing the gate. I went into the auditorium where there was a school function. No one came out and moved their cars after I went in 3 times. I called the tow truck. They wouldn’t move the cars till the deputy got there. I toted 2…TWO 50# bags of grain to the barn by myself. The deputy had still not arrived. I was in tears. When the tow truck got there people started coming out to move. I said the tow truck has sat here 30 minutes. HE needs to be paid for his gas. The principal came out, someone had called him. Mind you, this started at 5:30. It was now 8:00 pm. He asked if they could just move their cars it would not happen again. The COUNTY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION OFFICE paid the tow truck driver by check in the mail. The deputy arrived, measured the distance 
and decided they were ALL on our property. Duh!!! They were blocking my driveway.
And I had toted 100 pounds of sweet feed to my barn and had walked 400 yards with no one offering to help. And….it did happen again. I left the gate open, went to feed the next day and cars were ON MY PROPERTY do I shut the gate and locked them in. I proceeded to tack up my horse and too a long trail ride with MY vehicle parked inside my gate longways. I’d called the tow truck and said no hurry. I’m on a trail ride and the gate is locked. If I can wait several hours, they can too.
I also called the sheriff’s office. They said, it’s your property and they’re tresspassing. Got it taken care of and they were waiting on me…I pulled the saddle and tack off my horse and rested him before feeding. Cleaned the tack and only one person was stupid enough to say anything. The deputy shut them up.
We have a gate…it doesn’t help because when it’s closed they still park, turn around or block by sitting in the highway waiting ON THE HIGHWAY to pick their kids up. We are going to fix the driveway when our home is finished. We’re on a highway. We can’t have a gate RIGHT ON THE LINE where the highway starts. It’s illegal to block ANY DRIVEWAY anywhere anyway.
Yes I have a gate …to whoever says I don’t want to close it, it doesn’t matter. My driveway is being blocked anyway.
I thought you said the sheriff wouldnt do anything?
As I said first, the joys of living by a school. It’s a problem at (almost literally) every school in the country to some extent. Around me, there’s a school that has a car line that blocks the school bus garage entrance - there’s about a half-hour window every afternoon where buses must be out or be back, or they’ll be stuck sitting and waiting. Yes, in the middle of the highway.
It’s just a traffic jam that you know is going to happen daily. Not really anything anyone can do about it.
How about those tire shredders that give you a flat when you back over them the wrong way?
If the problem is that people block your driveway by parking in front of it on the main road (rather than coming onto your property), I don’t think there’s much you can do but call the cops on them if they won’t move when you ask.
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Are free.
Im not reading that shit.
Gate doesn’t stop the problem. If gate is closed idiots have room to park on our property and BLOCK our entrance and exit.
Sorry you have the same problem.
Closing it is not the solution. It just causes more problems because they will park in front of it and we can’t enter or exit. Read my first comment. It’s a huge problem.
Yes he had to get out of our driveway. Which was blocked. No time to wait for idiots to move.
Only once and we knew the deputy. He’s retired and we knew him. All these guys are now are 20 year olds. They’d park there too if they weren’t busy sitting on the highway in other parts of the county. The resource officer hasn’t done anything since she’s been here. So I called the State Troopers Office and they couldn’t understand why the County Sheriff’s Office didn’t do something to stop it. The next day the resource office directed traffic ONE MORNING for 20 minutes. That’s all she’s done since AUGUST 2023. There are other cities in my state that absolutely DO NOT tolerate blocking driveways. Our county needs to learn how they handle it.
That’s a problem. Those ELECTED OFFICIALS should bring this up when running for office and if it’s not fixed we need to remember they didn’t when we vote.