Parents make bus zone hazardous

I am the transportation director for Pacific Camps Family Resources Inc. Pacific Camps is a Camarillo-based licensed child daycare facility that provides transportation to and from our eight camps in Ventura County to a number of local schools.

The problem is that for the past six months I have been dealing with Terra Linda Elementary School in Camarillo on an issue of the safety of their bus zone.

A few years ago, the school installed classroom portables in the former bus pick-up zone, which pushed the bus zone pick-up and drop-off area into the main side street of the school.

This worked for a couple of years because it was properly labeled by a red curb. But within the last couple of years, the city removed the painted curbs and replaced the proper signage with vague markings of a bus zone.

Now, parents are constantly parking in the bus zone. Because the school district has changed the bus zone over and over, it appears as if the Camarillo Police Department only responds a limited number of times before they stop coming out to enforce the law.

When the local police do come out, it seems they only enforce the law when it comes to people running red lights, not those who park and even leave their car unattended in the bus zone.

I have been dealing with officials at Camarillo Police Department and the California Highway Patrol, even with the principal at Terra Linda. She tells me she doesn't have the personnel to help ensure the safety of bus parking when loading and unloading.

I have called Pleasant Valley School District's superintendent and was pushed to the transportation department.

I am appalled at the lack of concern the city and school are showing towards this hazardous and unsafe practice. This problem has been going on since school started.

I would like to make a formal complaint about this school district, the city code enforcer, and the local police department, but it seems to me that no one wants to help ensure the safety of the streets or the safety of the children when loading at a bus stop.

I have people running red flashing lights on a school bus. Drivers also double park in the bus zone to load and unload their children.

These incidents occur between 7:45 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. every weekday morning. It's also occasionally a problem between 11:30 a.m. and 1:54 p.m. John Rudd Pacific Camps Family Resources Inc. Transportation director