Op-ed: Parking spot painting would solve parking problems

Hadley Hoskins
Editor-in-Chief

Ongoing construction on Kopplin Field and the Frick Theatre is taking away already-limited parking spaces, causing an array of issues for students.

While students are able to park in front of the school on Selma, Bradford and Lockwood Avenues, these spots are hard to come by and are often taken early, sometimes by 7:30 a.m., almost an hour before school starts. Seniors, and in some cases juniors, are able to buy parking spaces in one of the three parking lots, but these spots are often taken by other students.

“It causes issues for other students because they can’t park in their spots. It just causes a domino effect; it’s chaotic, and nobody has a parking spot,” said Julia Huelsman, Dr. Jenna Klenke-Galbreath’s administrative assistant, who monitors student parking.

An email sent out on Oct. 18 to juniors and seniors said the issue had “gotten out of control.” Huelsman said that over the month of October, there were 60 parking violations.

Although Webster does have consequences in place for those who park in the wrong spaces, ranging from a $10 fine to parking being revoked, this often isn’t enough to deter students. In fact, the issue stems from the fact that students are not always aware the spot they’re parking in is assigned to someone else.

““I’m in the baseball lot, and since it’s half staff and half student parking, people don’t realize that those spots are taken,” senior Ben Jordan said.

One method that could be used to solve this problem is parking-spot painting.

Widely participated in across the country, parking spot painting entails students (usually seniors) personalizing their parking spots. This could include their name, references to their favorite TV shows and movies and other symbols that would make it clear a spot is assigned to someone.

“If we have our names on our parking spots, it’ll be easier to tell if someone didn’t pay for a parking spot, so logically, it makes more sense,” senior Audrey Culver added.

In addition to the practical side of this tradition, parking spot painting would be a fun addition to senior year traditions.

Senior Isabella Dyson said, “A lot of the senior traditions are more towards the end of the year, like prom and graduation, so it would be fun to have something more towards the beginning of the year.”

“I think it would be fun to do as a group before school started, have everyone come up,” senior Sam Miller said.

There is overwhelming support from students for parking spot painting to become a tradition at Webster. In a survey sent out to students, 78% (31 of 40 respondents) said they wished they were allowed to decorate their parking spots.

Currently, it is not expressly stated that students cannot paint their parking spots; however, a painting event would not currently be school sanctioned.