Opportunity to Appeal: StuCo is restarting Student Court sessions for students to appeal parking violations

Student Council will be hosting monthly Student Court sessions starting March 1 for students to appeal their parking violations.

Court will be held the first Wednesday of each month after school in the office conference room. For each case, Associate Principal Kristoffer Barikmo will explain the reason for the student’s ticket and fine. The student will then present their appeal to a jury of members from StuCo’s five-person Parliamentary Committee. The jury will discuss the appeal and decide whether the fine should be held, revoked or reduced.

“If a student has a parking ticket that they think was unfairly given and they have a reason they want to appeal it, [Student Court is] a place for them to do that,” Parliamentary Committee Chair and sophomore Ellen Bowser said.

Student Court isn’t new for StuCo. Before East moved to assigned parking, Student Court met regularly for students to appeal violations. Designated spots reduced misunderstandings as students mostly parked in their own spots, according to Barikmo. With open parking reinstated, a rise in non-permitted parking warranted the return of the court.

“The whole cycle of East students have never done this, so it’s kind of new for all of us except for Barikmo,” Bowser said. “It was kind of hard to get it off the ground, but we’re starting it up now.”

Since switching back to open parking this year, StuCo sponsors and teachers Brenda Fishman and Hannah Pence brought back the Parliamentary Chair position to bring back the opportunity for student’s to make appeals. In the fall, Bowser and the StuCo Executives would meet with administration to work out the details of how it would work to reinstate the court.

“It’s one of those things that we’re going to run this semester to see what that looks and feels like and then kind of evaluate [if this] is this something necessary moving forward,” Barikmo said. “If it isn’t necessary there’s no need for it. If it is, then we’ll continue to see what we can do with Student Court.”

To get their ticket appealed, students first need reach out to Bowser or Student Body President Jack Kessler to get the link to the Google Form where they’ll state their parking violation, the cost of their fine and their number of prior offenses, if any. They’ll then use a Sign-Up Genius link to select a hearing time.

While March 1 will be the first official court date, Bowser formed a three-person jury as a trial run in January after junior Alex Flower requested to make an appeal. Barikmo fined Flower $25 for parking in three spots at once, but the ticket’s fine print states that $10 is the charge for a first offense. 

After Flower contacted the administration for an appeal, Bowser assembled a jury of Kessler and Parliamentary Committee members senior Michael Newbold and junior Connor Bykowski. 

“We went to the conference room and the three judges sat across the table and I was on the other side and I just pleaded my case,” Flower said.

After Flower presented his argument, his fine was reduced to $10.

Flower’s case started the committee on the court process, guiding them to set an official date to start Student Court.

“It gave students the opportunity to walk through the process of being in an appeals court of sorts,” Barikmo said. “It helped identify some information on the physical ticket itself that was not consistent with our current practices for fines. The student brought a very good point forward and we were able to make an amendment to the fine.”