Driving to school is a privilege seniors have been waiting for their entire high school careers. They finally have the freedom to park and have a car at Darien High School. However, recently many juniors have taken that liberty away from the seniors. Some juniors drive to school and park in the DHS lot.
In order to drive to school a certain number of requirements have to be fulfilled. First of all you must be a senior! All seniors need to have no blue list fines, all Physical Education credits need to be up-to-date, and emergency cards have to be turned in. Only then can a senior purchase a parking permit for $100 that allows the student to park in the DHS lot. Juniors who drive to school do not pay for the parking permit, and so their parking spaces are free. This raises controversy over the issue, since seniors had to pay a full $100 for their permit; however juniors, in addition to parking illegally, receive a free-bee.
Other regulations include no parking in the Methodist Church lot. If a student illegally parks in the lot, that vehicle will be towed. If an unpermitted car is found parked in the DHS lot, a ticket of $15 will be issued to the owner. If the ticket is not paid within the allotted time, then the fines will be doubled. The school does its best to monitor the parking situations and properly enforce the rules.
“Our response has generally been to ticket cars that don’t have the appropriate sticker. Also, when credible information comes to us about a specific junior who is parking at school we investigate and handle it on a case-by-case basis,” Principal Mr. Dan Haron said. He continued, “Unfortunately when a ‘random’ car without a sticker is parked in the lot, we are unable to get information from the police about the ownership of the car and therefore can only apply a blanket measure of ticketing that car, as opposed to speaking with the student-owner directly.”
Exceptions to the parking rules do exist such as exceptional family hardship or a serious medical emergency. “From time to time, if there are extenuating circumstances that we believe necessitate making an exception, we do so… but it happens very rarely,” Mr. Haron said.
According to the DHS student handbook concerning parking privileges, “If you drove last year [as a junior], your permit may be delayed”. The DHS website additionally warns, “juniors are reminded that driving to school is a senior privilege only. Violations of parking rules will result in loss of privilege or the student not being issued a parking permit until later in the student’s senior year.”
Many juniors complain about the poor design of the high school and its lack of parking spaces. “They built a whole new school; they should have made space for us [juniors]” junior Annie Archibald said. She believes that whoever has their license, senior or junior, should have the opportunity to park at DHS.
The rule that only seniors can drive has caused many problems for juniors as well. “I have to take the bus home to go get my car and then drive back for practice,” junior Kate Bushell said. “It’s an inconvenience to my parents when I don’t have the car.” Students have to go out of their way to pick up cars at home to get to jobs and other after school commitments. Juniors seem to be asking the community to envision: “Just think how much easier it would be if juniors were able to have a car at school. It would open up so many more opportunities.” But with good opportunities also come bad opportunities: most juniors cannot drive their friends. It is the law that a driver must have his or her license for one year until the driver can drive others outside their family. If juniors have a car available, this could encourage illegal passengers hitching a ride to school.
Many juniors complain it is simply “not fair [that some juniors get away with driving to school]”. They think either all juniors should get to drive, or none.
Student council has recently held a drawing for one “junior” parking spot. This drawing is a fundraiser for the junior class and is very popular amongst junior drivers. “I really hope I win the spot, I’d love to be able to drive to and from school” junior Jackie Winsch said. However other juniors have a different idea. “To raffle one spot is pointless, they should raffle off all available spots” junior Andrew Morgan said. If the spot is available, why not give more drivers the opportunity to park? The issue then arises of how to determine how many spots are available. The number of students who drive varies day to day. “I think seniors should get priority and the remaining spots should be raffled off to juniors” junior Ali McGarey said.
Check out Neirad’s article about the junior parking spot drawing: http://www.darienps.org/neirad/1112parkingraffle.php
For more information about the school driving rules and regulations visit: http://www.darienps.org/dhs/studentparking.php
