We have all been there. We are either in a time crunch in the morning or coming back from open lunch and the worst thing that could possibly happen to you happens: no parking spots. You scan every row and there is nothing. You are filled with panic. It is 8:17 and your first period is in E-wing and Kroeze said she will not give you anymore passes. It looks like you are just going to have to skip first period and snag a spot once people leave for CTE. Nothing makes you sicker to your stomach than driving by the staff parking lot and seeing empty spot on top of empty spot.

After coming back from an appointment yesterday, I could not find a parking spot, but I took a gander at the staff parking lot and there were almost 20 open spots. 20. For a second, I imagined myself parking in the staff lot. I would be able to make it to class with enough time to use the bathroom and bully Kroeze. But in fear of losing my parking pass, I had to park across the street and sprint to school in order to make it to my last period.

If I am paying $50 for a parking pass, I would appreciate not over selling the parking passes so I actually have a place to park. Also, if there are 20 spots open in the staff parking lot, I do not see the problem with taking up some of those spots so students can get to class. If a student who has open lunch leaves, comes back and does not find a spot to park, odds are they are not going to park in Arcadia and drive around until they find a spot and be late or not show up to class.

Another pet peeve LHS students have with parking is when winter weather hits. One, the parking lot is plowed horribly; students can not find a spot and everyone ends up parking like idiots which takes away handfuls of spot. Two, when the parking lot is plowed they just move all the snow into a corner which takes up anywhere from three to seven spots. I sometimes wonder if the guy who plows the parking lot thinks, ‘You know what would be funny? If I made the parking lot more hostile in the morning than it already was!’

The parking situation at LHS makes or breaks one’s entire day. You can tell the difference between a student who got front row parking and the one who had to sprint from Arcadia to make it to class. There is nothing more frustrating when you see a parking spot that you should be able to park in after handing over a hard earned Ulysses S. Grant. I believe that LHS should take some time to reinvent the parking situation to make life a lot easier for students. The way it is right now is obviously not working and students should not have to stress so much about where they are going to park for the day.