Every spring, sophomores join juniors and seniors as they get their driver’s licenses and finally get to drive themselves to school. Although an exciting time for younger students, it tends to get on the nerves of upperclassmen who are faced with increased competition for parking spots. At CHS, we are lucky enough to have two large parking lots at the stadium. Due to the abundance of parking space, we thankfully have no rule forbidding sophomores or younger students from driving to school. I remember being a sophomore, and getting to drive to school was an awesome privilege.

However, as an upperclassman, I now understand the frustration felt by older students when younger students create competition for parking spots. Naturally, most upperclassmen arrive at school later than sophomores. There are exceptions, but many upperclassmen have been driving for longer, feel more comfortable getting to school later and tend to arrive closer to the bell ringing for first period. Sophomores, on the other hand, who have just gotten their licenses, tend to be more worried about making it to school on time and enjoy more time socializing with friends.

The result of these differences is that as more sophomores begin driving to school, parking spots in the away side of the stadium parking lot are more frequently taken by younger drivers. Due to this, as the year has progressed, by the time upperclassmen pull into the parking lot in a rush to get to class, they find the spaces they have occupied all year to be taken. If they want to be on time to class, upperclassmen may be tempted to park illegally in the grass or at the end of a row of cars. If frustrated enough, upperclassmen may be forced to park in the home side of the stadium parking lot, which adds a few extra minutes to their walk to class.

However, multiple times this school year, this parking lot on the home side of the stadium has been blocked off. Therefore, tons of available parking spaces have been inaccessible to student drivers. This shortage of parking spots has forced students to park in the grass near the stadium, in handicap spots or in any open space they can find in the parking lot. So instead of quickly parking and beginning to walk the trail to class, students have recently been forced to waste time searching for creative places to park.

Making the issue more frustrating, some of these students have been ticketed by CHS for parking in the grass or in unacceptable places in the stadium parking lots. This issue will not improve if CHS continues to close off the home side of the stadium parking lot while the number of students driving to school increases.

I realize this is not the most pressing issue facing administrators, but it is an important one to many students. A simple fix would be for CHS to ensure that the parking lot on the home side of the stadium is open and available to students every day. Another possible solution to this problem that would reward upperclassmen and not create too large of a burden on younger drivers who arrive earlier to school anyway, would be to require sophomores to park in the home side of the stadium parking lot. For example, CHS could issue certain color stickers or hanging window passes to any sophomore who got his or her driver’s license and planned to drive to school. With only a little extra work for administrators and sophomore drivers, this plan would significantly decrease the amount of chaos and stress felt by the majority of student drivers. It would also reduce the number of illegally parked vehicles in the parking lot on the away side of the stadium in an attempt to rush to class on time.

It is irresponsible for drivers to not follow the rules and to park illegally, but I also believe that it is irresponsible for the administration to not address the increasing number of student drivers with an organized and clear plan.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Emma Love at [email protected].