A silent threat to children's school road safety in Türkiye: The impact of stray dog attacks

The aim of this study is to reveal the effects of stray dogs on school road safety and to provide practical suggestions for solving the problem. The study was conducted in schools located in residential areas where stray dogs are densely populated in Mardin. Phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The study was conducted with the participation of stakeholders in seven different schools, including central and village schools. In Türkiye, it has been determined that stray dogs endanger children’s road safety to school and prevent equal opportunities in education. Research results show that stray dogs negatively affect the safety of not only students but also other stakeholders of the school. According to the results, stray dogs cause fear, panic, stress, reluctance to school, lack of self-confidence in students and other stakeholders in psychological terms, and chasing, falling and getting injured, biting and traffic accidents in physical terms. Stray dogs cause different negative effects such as preventing students and other school stakeholders from accessing the school, causing students to be absent, affecting the school’s course operation, spreading infectious diseases and creating visual pollution in the environment. In the context of these results, it can be said that adopting stray dogs first and taking the dogs that are not adopted to shelters will contribute to school road safety.