One of the rights of passage for high school students is the privilege of driving a car.  Yet another right of passage comes with being assigned a parking space in the student parking lot.  One adjustment that comes with parking at the school versus parking at home or at a shopping center is that how a student is parked is strictly enforced by security officers.  For students lackadaisical or inexperienced at perfecting their parking maneuvers, this time in their lives can come at a price.

One of the reasons students are written parking tickets is for parking outside of their lines, either the sides are not proportionally within the line or the bumper may go over the line in front of the car.

“ I tried to negotiate the $10 fine because I was over the line about two inches and I did not feel it was fair,” Senior Ellie Spencer said.  

Another reason for parking tickets is when students are in a spot they’re not assigned to, or when there is miscommunication if a student is changing spots for a specific reason. Senior Jenna Chitla experienced a situation where a peer repeatedly hit her car with their door accidentally, so Chitla decided to request a different parking spot. During this time period of change, there was a lack of communication with the  security guards and they administered a ticket, although it was all cleared up by the end of the day.

“There’s a set of rules and regulations the county publishes that we have to follow here at Wakefield, and we don’t really do anything different than that,” Administrator Dr. Wells said.

It holds true that there are many people, both students and parents, that neglect to read all of the information in the parking contract that is important because it may seem insignificant at a specific time. One of these times is when parents and students must go over the contract, each must sign for the student to receive a parking pass, and they overlook the rules and regulations printed there.

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This whole situation created one huge misunderstanding that is not easy to handle because it may become easy to play the blame game, although it’s really just a lack of responsibility sometimes and miscommunication other times. However, there are also students who may not learn from their previous mistakes and continue to accidentally break the rules.

“I have friends who have gotten five tickets,” Spencer said.

Since Wakefield hired a new parking attendant within the past month, there have been a few slight changes in how each security guard administers tickets, so it takes some time for students to adjust to seeing a new face around the parking lot. 

“It makes me feel bad about myself everytime I get a parking ticket,” Senior Katie Bynum said.

It seems to be a touchy subject with some of the students, seeing as they’re not intentionally trying to break the rules in most cases. With time will come a sense of community between the new parking attendant and the students who have the privilege of having a parking spot at school.