Tardies? Parking? Groundbreaking!

By Kassidy Thomas and Hayden Murry

News and Student Life Editors

November 2021

Chaos. Cars driving at various speeds, swerving in and out of slots, and whipping around corners. This is a scene many students are faced with and dread every single day. From the long lines of cars, potholes, and incompetent drivers, many would think the school should bestow benevolence with the privilege of parking, however, students have seen this is not the case.

Parking at our own school requires a $100 parking pass. “It’s frustrating that we have to pay so much just to park in a crappy parking lot. The only advantage of having a parking pass is being closer to the school when it’s raining or snowing out,” said Senior Ellie Heyerdahl. “The parents don’t know how to drive anyway, so getting out of the school is terrible, and I'm surprised there haven't been more accidents.”

While students mostly understand the purpose of a parking fee, many have expressed discontent with the high price. Students feel that with such a large student body, pass rates should be lower, especially compared with the significantly lower cost of Beloit Turner’s, which is roughly $60. “I understand it pays for plowing and all of that, but having to pay causes kids to either have to walk because they can’t afford it or have to park further,” said Freshman Charlie Ziemba.

Students were also concerned about how the price of the pass impacts low-income students and families. Being a Title 1 school, many families throughout the school district simply cannot afford to pay the $100 parking pass. Many kids who cannot afford a parking pass have to either get a ride from a guardian or friend, ride their bike or walk.

Students can often be tardy, especially when they have to rely on someone else to take them to school or walk/ride their bikes in inclement weather conditions. This, however, causes issues as the tardy policies from the 2019-2020 school year reemerge. If late, students are immediately sent to ALE to either talk to a counselor or assistant principal, causing them to miss even more classes.

“Students who are consistently late often don’t care about missed class time, “ said a student. “However, if they ever decided to want to rebound on their academics and whatnot, they might not have the motivation to make those changes.”

Though this is harming many people’s attendance, there are reasons for this policy being in place. Students, although few, but enough to cause concern, roam the halls during instruction time. “I feel like the tardy policies are ridiculous, students are not able to attend the class for being maybe a few minutes late even if they were dilly-dallying in the hallway it does not mean they should be punished with their class time,” said a student. “Students are in school to learn and they are not learning by sitting in ALE”.”