Author Spotlight
Vanessa Blades
Students have noticed more and more underclassmen are parking in the unpaid parking spots without a permit, which has caused the 575 students who paid $50 for a permit to have difficulty finding a spot this year.
When arriving late to school, sophomore Fritz Kostner parked in a yellow-lined reserved spot because he couldn’t find an open spot in the back row or in the Prairie Village Pool lot. He walked into school without a worry, but as he went to his fourth hour, his teacher, Mr. Wiesner, handed him a parking ticket.
“I thought [tickets] were just a myth to trick people so they wouldn’t park in the senior lot,” Kostner said. “I didn’t think they would actually give me a ticket.”
The administration has been more proactive compared to last year by handing out parking tickets to prevent this from continuing. Associate Principal Dr. Anna Thiele walks around the parking lot in front of the school in the morning to make sure everyone parked has the proper permit.
If the car doesn’t have a parking pass sticker, Thiele then takes pictures of the front of the car to show there’s no parking pass, and the back of the car to show the license plate, making sure she gets the color of the lines in the picture.
“So there is no junior lot, sophomore lot, senior lot,” Thiele said. “Those do not exist, and I think we need to be really clear about that. There’s paid parking and there’s not-paid parking.”
She then forwards the pictures to the SRO’s so they can see who the car is registered under and find out who the car belongs to. The book keeper will then send out the email to the student and notify them of their ticket.
With the constant flow of emails about parking inconsistency and unavailable spots, Thiele and Principal Jason Peres are doing what they can do prevent the situation. With no future plans to combat the issue if it gets worse, they are hoping the tickets will help students learn their lesson.
The first offense is a $30 fine, the second offence is a $50 fine and the third offence is a $75 fine along with being denied a parking pass the following year. If you get a fourth offense, it results in another $75 fine and ineligibility to get a parking permit for the next two years.
They have given out a decent amount of tickets starting in early November, but haven’t noticed any change in parking behaviors. With only Thiele managing the parking lots, it’s hard to catch everyone.
While the underclassmen have felt the repercussions of their actions, seniors are relieved action is being taken, according to senior Annabelle Covell. After years of being reprimanded by previous upperclassmen for their parking indecency, they now understand what it feels like to lose their own privileges.
“I know seniors are really mad as it feels like seniority is being taken away to some people,” Covell said.
Along with Kostner, many others have gotten parking tickets including junior Henry Stiglic, sophomore Avery Folger and junior Ava Perez.
“Sometimes when I’m coming back for my sixth hour, I purposely go five minutes earlier than I need to because I know I won’t be able to find a spot,” Covell said.
Pep execs have texted the “SME PEP CLUB” GroupMe multiple times to remind students to not park in the yellow lines if they don’t have a pass. The execs have noticed that this method seems to works for two days then its back to normal, according to Annabelle Covell.
According to the execs, this year is so much worse then previous years because of the increase in enrollment.
“Teachers have been saying how there’s not parking in teachers’ parking and i’m assuming its because of this [increased enrollment,” Thiele said. “I think I need to start checking more in that area for sure because it’s not fair to staff.”
Hoping this clears up before the end of the year, the administration are doing what they can to end this problem and ensure it doesn’t keep continuing for upcoming years.
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