Addie Conway
Opinion Columnist
Cars circle around the high school, all of the drivers looking for a place to park. There’s no giant event or meeting–it’s just another day at school.
Even before the construction, the parking was a pretty bad situation. Almost all of the teachers’ drive, as do the seniors and juniors, with many sophomores joining student drivers, but hardly any of these people have anywhere to park.
Around the school, neighborhoods don’t want to be obstructed by student traffic, so signs specifically say, “No parking on Mon-Fri from 8-3.” Pre construction, there was a very small teachers’ lot and two medium student parking lots. Any spots not already claimed by neighborhood traffic were claimed by Webster University students or teachers.
With the construction, parking has gotten even worse. Say pre-car you always had to get up at 6:45 a.m., so that you could ready and have time to walk or ride to school, to be at school at 7:55 a.m.
Now that you have a car, you could use that space of 45 minutes to sleep in a little longer, yet with the parking situation, you still have to get up at 6:45 a.m., all in order to get a space around the school.
Over the summer, students received packets that held back-to-school information like pictures, registration dates athletic information and for juniors and seniors, parking information.
Seniors should get first pick because they’ve earned it. They’re have a much higher number of people who not only have their licenses but also have their own cars, or at least a car they use to drive to school. At the same time, that could end up meaning that no juniors get a pass, and considering how we have a senior lot and a junior lot, that doesn’t seem quite logical to me.
An equal number of passes should be available for both juniors and seniors; if there are any left, then they should be offered to sophomores, perhaps for a slightly higher price. Both seniors and juniors could be made to carpool, in order to lighten up on the earth and the parking situation.
At the same time, those seniors and juniors who paid full price for their parking passes ($50) should have full reassurance that they get a spot. Many seniors also complain that juniors and sophmores who haven’t paid for a parking pass, end up taking a spot in the parking lots anyways. If you haven’t paid, then you don’t get a spot in the parking lot, and it’s not okay to take those spots away from people who did pay.
If you’re a senior who paid for a spot in the parking lot and then use your senior privilege of being able to leave during lunch, you should be guaranteed to have that spot when you come back from lunch.When I went to go see about parking passes on Aug. 12, a line of about 30 people was standing around confused. When I asked what was going on and if there were any passes left, I found out that the parking passes had all sold out at around 5:30 a.m. Needless to say, I was not only confused but pretty mad.
The paper that the juniors received specifically stated that whatever number of passes that were left over after the seniors had their pick would go on sale at Webster Groves High School, at 8:30 a.m. Aug. However, when I went there at 8 a.m., all 24 passes had already been sold.
Since the paper from the school said passes were to go on sale at 8:30 a.m., I figured I would get there a little early, in order to ensure a pass. When the school doors opened, those who were “in the know” so to speak got the passes instead. What I don’t understand is why did the passes sell out at before 8:30 a.m. as the document said they would?
Though seniors and juniors are upperclassmen, with most of them having their licenses and cars, I don’t think sophomores should be counted out either. Since the driving age is 16, which people turn during their sophomore year, it makes sense that they too would get a license and/or a car.
Perhaps the system that now applies to the juniors (that they get the last pick of whatever the seniors don’t get) could apply to the sophomores, and they could get the last pick of whatever the juniors and seniors don’t get.
True, that could end up meaning that there won’t be any passes, in which case the school might be able to look into a situation where they can auction off the spaces around the school to sophomores or remaining juniors and seniors with no passes.
With the construction, almost everything is crazy, so it would make sense for parking to be as well but even before the construction, the parking situation was pretty hectic.
I feel there is room to look at the parking situation and make some changes to it, as I know, for myself personally; I grow pretty frustrated with it. Perhaps we could all carpool, have an equal number of passes, or clear some space around the school, for students only. In addition, people could also walk to school, ride their bike to school or use the bus to get to school.
