GREENSBORO, N.C. — Grace Bray is fairly typical as far as 10-year-olds go. She likes to dance and sing, play with her friends and even read a good book on occasion, “She’s a great girl,” said Jennifer Bray.
Unfortunately, many of those activities Grace liked to do she no longer can, “We don’t know exactly what is going on, she started getting inflammation in her foot,” said Bray.
At this point doctors can’t seem to identify what’s causing the pain, but it is so severe that Grace now needs a knew scooter to get around, “It feels likes knifes shooting in my foot,” said Grace Bray.
The family now has a handicap placard in their car to allow them to park closer, so Grace doesn’t have to scoot a long way to get places, “I never thought she would need one of these,” said Bray.
When Jennifer Bray drops her daughter off at Alamance Elementary she often uses the handicap spot at the school. Alamance Elementary has 11 handicap spots for kids, teachers, staff and parents to use if needed.
Most of the time the spots sit empty or only a few are being used, which means finding a handicap spot is almost never an issue, but pulling into one can be, “It’s been frustrating to fight a battle that should be basic rights,” said Bray.
The spots are often blocked by other cars as parents drive through the pick up and drop off line at school, “I’ve complained to the school about it,” said Bray.
After reaching out to News 2 Bray sent video of the cars blocking one section of the handicap area. In the video you can hear her talking about the frustration that she feels seeing cars routinely stopped in front of the handicap spots.
She also sent pictures that show daycare vans, illegally parked in the handicap spots.
WFMY News 2 reached out to the school in hopes of seeing if we could help Bray with the issue. Principal Scott Winslow told News 2 it was aware of the complaints and was investigating the issue and looking for a solution, “We had a lot of concerns raised so we addressed the immediate concern, what we can take care of quickly, while others take time to put in motion,” said Winslow.
The school placed a sign in the drop off/ pick up line to alert parents about the handicap spots. While it helped a bit the school eventually placed a monitor near the end of the line to insure cars were no longer blocking the handicap spots, “Her concern helped clarify what needs we had beyond the scope of having a line of parking,” said Winslow.
Since the school has implemented some new practices when it comes to dropping off and picking up kids Bray says the issue have been resolved. The school says it will continue to have a person monitor to the spots during the morning and afternoon.
The school has also created specific spots for the daycare vans to park in and also provided a few extra visitor spots near the front of the building.
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