Children in Haidian schools to be punished for parents mistakes
Primary and middle school students in Haidian district will lose credit in their moral education assessment from next year, if their parents are found parking illegally, authorities announced on Monday.
The district-wide parking campaign will be carried out in all Haidian primary and middle schools, according to an announcement at the district National People's Congress session, the Beijing Morning Post reported yesterday.
"Many parents park their cars in a disorderly fashion outside schools, breaking traffic rules and leading to traffic jams," a publicity officer with Haidian district transportation management team, surnamed Du, told the Global Times yesterday.
The team will cooperate with the Haidian District Education Commission to regulate parking in school areas, Du said, with teachers and traffic police officers working to prevent illegal parking.
"Sometimes parents' cars occupy the roadside for a long time during evening rush hours, waiting for school to finish," a spokesperson with the team said at the meeting.
Some schools in Haidian have already begun the pilot scheme in spite of complaints from parents, and have found it to be quite effective, the spokesperson added.
"Parents' cars during peak times are indeed a problem for us, but there's nothing we can do about it," an office employee with Beijing Haidian Experimental Primary School, surnamed Zhang told the Global Times.
Under the new rules, a black mark will be kept on a child's moral educational assessment if their parents violate parking regulations, which caused some controversy.
"Traffic around schools does get bad because of messy parking, but kids shouldn't be punished for their parents' actions, it's not fair," said one mother whose child goes to a Haidian district primary school.
The Haidian district education commission was not available for comment on the matter yesterday, and have not explained to what degree it will affect the children's records.