Tea W/ C: Parking Dilemma
I think I speak for the whole student body when I say the parking at the school is awful.
First of all, roughly ¼ of the students in the high school drive. There are roughly 40 student spots in the parking lot. If you want to park in the parking lot, you need to pay ten dollars. To an extent, this is reasonable. However, not only do you have to pay the money, but it is also a first come first serve system because they give more parking passes then there are parking spots. So that leaves roughly half of the student drivers out of 10 precious dollars and parking on the street.
This brings me to, the amount of street parking spots. It’s even more limited than parking in the lot. The amount of spots are so limited that a group of students with special permission can park in someone’s yard. However, this also comes at a price. Because the grass gets torn up, these students have to lay gravel down in the summer to help with the yard damages. If you do not have a pass to park in their yard, you will be towed at the will of the house owner.
Then, there are these things called “yellow lines” that think they can make parking even harder on the students. In all seriousness, Alli Campbell was told to move her car because she was parked less than a foot in the yellow. I understand the yellow lines are there for safety and visual aids when pulling out and driving, but every year people get parking tickets. People are getting parking tickets literally because they are trying to park so they can go to school. That honestly makes no sense. We are required to be here, peoples transportation are their cars, yet the parking comes at a cost essentially no matter where you park?
Let’s also address the fact that some students leave so much room in between their cars that you could literally fit another car in the space between. This picture was taken this morning…THAT IS NOT NECESSARY. You don’t need that much space to pull out bud. To these people, how would you feel if you were trying the park but you were a foot in the yellow. As you’re finding a new spot, you’re driving past all the other cars that are five feet apart, but you need 6 feet to park. One morning there was so much space between two cars that my brother literally parallel parked between them. Now that’s just crazy.
Don’t even me get me started on the fact that student teachers, substitutes, and even some teachers park in the student parking… I won’t go there.
In less than a month, I’ll be driving to school. As of right now, I have a number of friends that do already drive to school. This is an issue especially when it gets into the spring months because sophomores start getting their licenses too. Thus adding to the issue.
What can the school do? Great question. They literally can’t do anything which makes this whole situation even more frustrating. They can’t say that parking a foot in the yellow line is okay because it literally is illegal. They can’t add parking because in all seriousness, where would it go? Some people have said to use some of the practice field. But let’s be honest, the football team practices there. It’s highly unrealistic.
Even though there has not yet been an answer to this parking dilemma, I’d like to give a special shout out to all the students and Mr. Hughes and Mrs. Cunningham who walk to the school. Thank you for not taking up the parking spots. Y’all are the real ones.
