Seniors angered by stolen spots

As many students begin to receive their driver’s licenses, the parking lot fills up early in the morning. 

Due to the limited student parking spaces, finding a spot has become more difficult even for some seniors with senior honor code. 

If seniors have senior honor code they are allowed to park closer to the school and it allows the students to arrive at school later. 

The fight to get a spot in the student parking lot is very competitive. There are more drivers than spots so I often have to park in alternative lots, such as the tennis court lot or by JEL.  

A solution to ensure that you are getting a spot could be arriving earlier, but the spaces are usually all taken by 6:50 a.m., a whole half hour before school starts. For many, including myself, arriving that early that is not probable.

The alternative lots, such as the tennis court parking, is a good haul to the school. The walk isn’t too bad during the summer months, but winter can be tough. The sidewalk to the school is not always salted. This is problematic when we experience weather such as snow and ice storms. After an ice storm, I had to grab onto the fence of the tennis courts in order to walk on the sidewalk without slipping. 

One issue I have with the student parking lot is that there are merely more Senior Honor Code spaces than regular student spaces. There are many more student drivers without Senior Honor Code than those who do have it. 

The lack of student parking spaces has led to underclassmen and non-Senior Honor Code seniors stealing the special Senior Honor Code spots, hence, qualifying seniors lose their spots. Usually, they would receive a ticket for a violation of parking rules, but the enforcing of the rules seems to be at a minimum. 

This, understandably, frustrates seniors. I am willing to put up with parking at alternative lots because I know next year, my senior year, I should have guaranteed spots. Senior Honor Code spots are a privilege for select seniors, and everyone can eventually have access to them if they qualify.

Car-riders and student drop-offs also contribute to this problem. Parents take up senior and student spaces when they drop their kids off at school in the student parking lot, taking up crucial space. NC has a designated car-rider line to prevent this, but apparently some are too impatient to wait their turn.  

A possible solution to reserving senior parking is to offer the option to personalize a spot. This option is very popular among other high schools. Seniors would paint and design their own parking spot, and would park in that spot for the whole school year. This would be an effective way to reserve spaces and prevent car-riders and non-Senior Honor Code students from violating the parking rules.  The leftover senior spots could be converted into regular student spaces.

Hopefully, with the new construction that is going to take place over the next few years, NC will construct a larger student parking lot. Until then, allowing seniors to personalize their parking spots and enforcing car-riders to use the car line will help ease the upperclassmen parking hassle.