The families of Escola Cervantes and the municipal nursery school Puigmal denounce road safety problems in the accesses to both centers due to the continued passage of delivery vehicles during the hours of entry and exit of the students. The complaint focuses on the school environment, where parents assure that they have to dodge vans and small trucks during periods of maximum child attendance.
The protest is accompanied by photographs and videos sent by the families to record the situation. As they explain, the usual route to access the centers coincides with the loading and unloading schedule set since 2024, between eight in the morning and twelve noon, and between two and four in the afternoon.
The AFAs demand changes in regulation
The family associations of both centers have decided to unite their claims and request measures to improve both road safety and health conditions in the school environment. Among their main demands is to recover the loading and unloading zone schedule from before 2024, understanding that the previous model did not interfere with the children's entry and exit movements.
"Then it did not coincide with the entrances nor exits of the children. It is not about there being more police, it is about the district and the City Council committing to regulating the uses of the space" - Sandra Ezquerra, AFA de la Escola Cervantes
The representative of the AFA of the Escola Cervantes also maintains that the use of motor vehicles at that point is affecting the right of minors to access the school in safe and healthy conditions. In that sense, she demands municipal involvement to organize the space, either through the Guardia Urbana or through changes in regulation.
"The use of the motor vehicle is violating the rights of the creatures and for that reason the City Council has to get involved, either via Guardia Urbana, to guarantee the safe and healthy passage to the school" - Sandra Ezquerra, AFA of the Escola Cervantes
Criticism of current measures
From the direction of Escola Cervantes they also question the effectiveness of the solutions applied so far. The director, Magda Martí, explains that the City Council sent some plastic fences that the janitor places at each entrance and exit and then removes. In her opinion, this is an insufficient response.
"We have encountered cases where the car driver, with the barriers in place, gets out of the vehicle, removes them, and passes" - Magda Martí, director of Escola Cervantes
The situation directly affects a center with 220 students who enter and leave through the same door, which concentrates a good part of the daily movement of families and minors at a single point.
Ezquerra also recalls that in 2023 a one-year-old child died after being run over by a van in the neighborhood, a precedent that has increased the concern of the educational community about the transit of delivery vehicles in the area.
Meeting with the district awaiting measures
The AFA of Escola Cervantes and of Escola Bressol Municipal Puigmal have already conveyed these concerns in the last district council of the neighborhood, where they demanded concrete measures and the reduction of loading and unloading hours. This same week, representatives of the two centers have met with district technicians to present their requests again and demand efficient preventive measures.
Municipal sources indicate that the council acknowledges the concern expressed by families and will study what actions it can implement to correct the situation in the vicinity of both school centers.