News Briefs: Catch up on school, local and national news.

Assistant Principal Kristoffer Barikmo emailed all underclassmen and their families on March 22, stating that they must not park in any lot on campus. Now, Barikmo is actively enforcing these rules.

“We do not sell permits to any ninth or tenth graders as we have a shortage of parking,” Barikmo stated. “We have sold exactly the number of permits for the spaces we have and students without permits continue to park on campus.”

This email was following a message in the Pep Club GroupMe that threatened involving administration if underclassmen continued to park on campus. 

Although parking for underclassmen isn’t completely unavailable — Barikmo provided three options in his email: the back line of spots on the south lot, next to Prairie Village City Hall, the PV Pool parking lot or along Delmar by the athletic fields.

According to an Instagram poll of 136 students, 73% of upperclassmen expressed multiple times that underclassmen must not park in any numbered parking spots. Upperclassmen like senior Abry Steinbrecher have argued that because they have paid for passes, only they can freely use them.

“If you are a freshman or sophomore, please do not park in the senior lot [or] the junior lot,” Steinbrecher said. “We have waited for three years to have spots free for us.”

On the other hand, many underclassmen are facing frustration due to a lack of parking spots. According to an Instagram poll of 149 East students, 73% of underclassmen are upset with the current conflicts. Bus services are no longer available for those within a two-mile radius of the school, and according to various announcements from SMSD administration, truancy is currently a rising issue within East, prior to parking conflicts. 

Sophomore Madi Moormann worries that inconvenient parking will only raise these rates.  

“It can be tricky to get to school on time,” Moormann said. “Especially with road work on Mission Road.”

To enforce parking rules, Barikmo checks all cars in the lot for parking passes, writing down plate numbers for cars without them. Cars without passes are then ticketed and fined starting at $25.

If a pass-less car is found two or more times, the student will not be able to purchase a parking pass when they’re next able to do so. 

“If you park in a spot with number or you pull across a yellow line and you don’t have a permit, you risk getting a ticket,” Barikmo wrote.

TikTok is now banned on all Johnson County government networks. As federal legislators have begun to investigate the app’s security, Johnson County took action into their own hands by restricting usage. 

The county released a statement that the ban came after they reviewed the app in response to the federal government’s concerns about its Chinese ownership. Johnson County chose to restrict the app on government-owned devices.

“Based on this review and consulting across departments, offices and agencies, TikTok access by employees on Johnson County networks will be restricted as of 5 p.m. on March 10,” Governor Laura Kelly said in her press release. “Exceptions will be made for employees with a business need to use TikTok.” 

As authority figures in government positions across the country have begun to draft bills in favor of banning the app entirely, TikTok influencers have expressed outrage, voicing that other issues should be paid more attention. 

Sophomore MK Hughes says that legislators and local government should prioritize more prevalent issues like gender and race equity.

“There are so many things to focus on that are astronomically more important,” Hughes said. “All of these bills involving taking massive steps back in trans rights getting passed is ridiculous.”

Tornadoes have been sweeping the country since March 30. They have resulted in 32 confirmed fatalities, ranging throughout the U.S. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites announced the severity of the storms captured on satellites on their Twitter account. 

NOAA is monitoring strong weather that may bring severe storms capable of producing golf ball size hail and strong winds to the South. 

There will be little time to recover from current damage, with roughly 50 confirmed tornadoes having touched down in several southern and midwestern states and more to come, according to The National Storm Prediction Center.

Freshman Tucker Ward has family living in the midwestern areas affected by the tornadoes. His family has had to take cover twice in the past two weeks.

“We had to go to the basement because of the tornado,” Ward said.    

The National Weather Service identified several areas of concern including central Arkansas, eastern Iowa, northern Illinois, southern Missouri and southeastern Oklahoma. Missouri and Oklahoma are estimated to hit a Level 4 on the tornado scale, according to The Storm Prediction Center.

“More dangerous weather in the USA,” World Meteorological Organization wrote on Twitter. “Please heed warnings and stay safe.”