Changes in Parking Create Mixed Emotions This School Year

Addisyn Lopez

Administration asked students to refrain from parking in the cafeteria lot this school year, and many students have mixed emotions regarding the change.

This year at Great Crossing High School, the school administration introduced a new rule for student drivers to follow. Students have been given only one parking lot to use. This is a large shift from last year, when students had two parking lots to choose from. Overall, students are unhappy with this adjustment.

The change in policy was made with the hope of creating the safest environment possible for the campus. Austin Haywood, an assistant principal, explained the reasoning behind the change. “We moved student parking to the front to create a more controlled entry or exit for students. We have a great number of students who enter the building, outside of our normal entry times, mostly due to the large number of students enrolled in classes outside the GCHS campus. This provides a safer and more consistent entry for them. The front entrance is controlled by office staff and requires multiple security checks prior to entering the hallways of Great Crossing. It also created an additional staff only parking area.”

Many students believe the parking lot is too crowded. Liam Spurlock, senior at GCHS, said “I struggle to find spots closer to the school unless I wake up much earlier.” Many students also relate to this as in the morning the early drivers will take most of the front while others must find a spot in the back of the lot.

Spurlock also claimed that this new rule has impacted his life outside of school. “It’s impacted the time at which I arrive home, because everybody has to get out of only two different ways making traffic clog up on a daily basis.” 

The small number of exits compared to the large number of drivers causes students to be late to a job or any extracurriculars they have after school. Madison Gibson, senior at GCHS, has experienced this. “I have been five to ten minutes late to work many times.” The chaotic lines that are formed at the end of the day force students to sit and wait for a longer period of time to exit.

Gibson feels strongly about this switch in school procedure, “It’s too congested and it makes me feel claustrophobic.” Gibson parked in the cafeteria parking lot last year, because the smaller number of people that parked there made it easier for her to enter and exit.

Jacob Williams, senior at GCHS, is worried about parking in the front parking lot. Williams avoids parking there at all costs because of the history it has with small crashes. Williams said, “I’m scared to park in the front parking lot because I don’t want anything to happen to my car that I’ll have to pay for.” Both parking lots have had their share of hit-and-runs and small wrecks. 

Students would prefer GCHS to revert back to their original parking policy.  Spurlock said, “It would help the flow of traffic and would allow students to get to their destinations much faster overall if we were to modify the rule.”