Junior year of high school is considered to be the most important and challenging year of high school. Not only is there the preparation for college and teachers pushing their students to be the best they can be, but students are also in the process of learning how to drive.

Some students in the class of 2023 have gotten their license within the 2021-22 school year. Some of these students are hesitant to start driving to school every day due to a fear of other student drivers.

However, even with this fear many students still drive to school. Junior Dea Lampkins has had her license for about four months and usually parks in the student lot.

“Sometimes I get nervous that I might not be there with my car and it’ll get scratched, but I’m sure other people have similar fears so I hope that they drive properly in order to avoid any accidents,” comments Lampkins.

When the bell rings, signaling the end of the school day, students rush to their cars in the student lot in hopes that they will be able to avoid the inevitable traffic buildup.

“I park in the staff parking lot because I don’t want someone hitting my car plus it takes forever to get out of the student parking lot,” says senior Jaylen Rose.

Some of the teachers don’t agree with students parking in the staff lot. Math teacher William Adams remarks, “I get to school pretty early so in the morning it doesn’t bother me, but after school, it takes a while to get out of the staff lot because of all the people trying to leave. That’s when I don’t like students parking in that lot.”

The main issue with  the staff lot is the extremely faded lines marking the parking spots, causing students and teachers alike to park in a less-than-ideal fashion. Some believe that since they can’t see the lines, they can just park anywhere-but this has led to spacing issues

(as shown in the image attached).

Overall, traffic leaving the school is unavoidable in both parking lots since there is only one entrance/exit from each lot. However, what matters is that both lots are safe and can be accessible to all students and staff.