Michael Emerson

Students creating parking spaces can cause problems for other drivers.

As the school year progresses, more students get their driver’s licenses cars and the parking lot fills up. As a result some students have begun to create their own parking spaces, which can cause problems in the parking lot.

The parking lot was designed in a way so that every spot could be filled and drivers would still have room to back up and drive through. However, when students create their own parking spaces it limits the amount of room in the lot, increasing the chance of door dings and fenders. This also can cause problems as there are new drivers that are less experienced and can back into these cars.

There are twice as many parking permits as there are spaces for the south parking lot. In the south parking lot there are a total of 66 spaces. There are around 120 parking permits in circulation this year.

The student handbook states, “Improper parking will result in towing of vehicles at owner’s expense.”

To fix this problem the administration calls the student out of class to go move their car to a more appropriate spot. The reason the administration does not tow the students and calls them to move their cars is to do them a favor so they do not have to pay the expensive fee of getting the car out of the impound lot.

There are also a number of cars in the parking lot that do not have the HCP parking decal that permits them to park in the parking lot. The HCP student handbook states, “if a vehicle does not have the required parking decal, the vehicle may be towed at the owner’s expense.”

To mitigate the problem, students can park along the street, as long as they do not block a driveway to the houses across the street from the school. Late-comers often find this to be their only option. Students who do not obtain a parking permit can also park along the street. Students could also get to school earlier

Another solution that could be implemented would be that administration assigns parking spaces on a first-come first-serve basis.

However, the administration said that it would likely not happen because it would be too hard to regulate with students from both schools parking in the parking lots and in addition, HCP students would have a majority of the parking spaces because they outnumber Fine Arts students.