Common Sense Editorial

Every summer, in the middle of August, parking spaces are given out to the seniors in the lower lot and at Rockshire. It has always been a luxury that only the seniors and sports captains can receive. That is, up until this year when spots at Rockshire were given to some lucky juniors. “I am very happy that I received a spot this year because I didn’t have another way of getting myself to school,” junior Evan Mclaughlin said.

These juniors are excited to be able to drive themselves to school and not wait another year for a spot. Many seniors however, do not feel the same way. They argue that it is not fair that the seniors had to wait three years to get their spot and some juniors are only having to wait two years. This has caused uproar amongst the senior class and makes students unhappy. “I think it is really unfair, to us seniors who have been waiting three long years to get a spot here, that juniors are getting spots at Rockshire,” senior Hope Rosner said.

Another problem with the spots is that they are ‘randomly’ given out. Students picked out of a box to see if they would be parking in the lower lot or at Rockshire. This was a somewhat fair process, but there were some flaws. One issue with this method is that students who had extras on their schedules such as internships or Dual Enrollment, which require students to leave and return to school at certain times, were not guaranteed a spot in the lower lot. Parking at Rockshire makes it difficult for students to arrive at destinations in a timely manner and forces them to find other methods of transportation to their activities. “The students that have extracurriculars such as Dual Enrollment or an Internship should be given priority parking so they can easily get to and from on time,” senior Allie Compton said.

For the first two to three weeks of school, an entire row in the lower parking lot sat vacant while many seniors were forced to park at Rockshire because that is what they were assigned. This was bothersome to the seniors as they had to make the trek all the way from Rockshire to school while many spaces lay open that they could have been assigned.

The way that the school has been giving out spots should continue being truly random in that everyone has a chance of getting either a Rockshire spot or a spot in the lower lot and should only be for seniors. Students with Dual Enrollment or internships should be given priority parking.