As students arrive at school each morning, they should not have to worry about where they will park.
The beginning of this year has been chaotic. Arriving ten minutes before school isn’t enough anymore to get your parking spot. Despite the Seniors being assigned the bottom level, we constantly run out of room, as other grades seem to be parking on the senior level. Once drivers discover that there’s no parking on the bottom level, they have to go all around the lot again and up to the top. By that time, students are already late for class. It seems impossible for all the spots to be full, as we only have 89 seniors. Even with help from security guards, the problem remains evident.
There needs to be stricter monitoring of who parks on which level. Because each student has stickers on their windshield showing their grades, it should be much easier to enforce where they park. This would give seniors more spots on level 1 and make the situation for everyone much more manageable and fair.
It’s not just the Seniors feeling this way. Junior, Shelby L., has had her share of hardships within the de Toledo parking lot: “Parking at de Toledo is the worst. It is miserable trying to leave after school, especially on Fridays. And I dread having to sit in my car for 30 minutes trying to leave the narrow parking space.” Her experience highlights that the problem goes beyond the mornings; after school, traffic is just as bad.
Moreover, word on the street is that students are parking on Sale to avoid the parking stalemate. Getting out of school, especially on Fridays, has become so bad that students are walking to and from school rather than parking on campus. Walking to school may sound like a healthy alternative, but in the midst of intense deadlines and college applications, this precious time walking could be better optimized by arriving to school earlier.
Additionally, students are finding it difficult to park in even open spaces because the spots are too narrow. Junior, Sam W., mentioned that some students park over the lines, effectively taking over two spaces. Why even pretend that these narrow spots are sufficient?
We should not have these daily struggles, especially with the stress of school already weighing on students. If true grade-level parking is enforced, we can have much easier mornings and afternoons. Furthermore, parking would be incredibly easy if everyone had assigned spots. If faculty can all have designated spots, why can’t students have the same?
According to reliantparking.com, there are several benefits to assigned parking: Peace of mind, a sense of consistency, and more reliability. Not only does this benefit the students, but it can also help increase security. If everyone had an assigned spot, security would immediately know who is not at school, and there would be fewer incidents where dTHS could be liable.
The parking struggle is unnecessary and avoidable. With very few and easy changes, the stress could be ameliorated. Not only do the changes benefit students, but they also make life easier for security, faculty, and parents picking up their kids. Rather than stressing about where to park, students should be able to strictly focus on their academics.
