The latest parking policy puts an end to the free-for-all chaos it was before. 

             At the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year, Athens Drive implemented a new “first come, first serve” system where there was no assigned parking space per student. This led to students risking getting parking tickets by parking at Lake Johnson and the nearby church, only encouraging tardiness. Students would have to compensate by rushing to get there, increasing the chance of danger. The second semester thankfully put an end to the war waged daily on the school’s parking lots. 

 “There was a day where I came to school one period late, so there were zero spots in the senior lot and I had to park in the back part of the junior lot. As a senior, that shouldn’t be happening” said Karoliina Luik, senior.

For Luik, arriving late is a rare occurrence, but it is a daily one for others. Students with late arrival would be put at a great disadvantage since all of the close spots would be taken. It would have them take extra time to skim the various parking lots surrounding the campus, walk from their spot to one of the attendance desks, and then to class. Now late arrival students can cut the extra steps to make their lives easier. 

 “I would not want to leave knowing that when I get back I might not have a spot at all. I went off today, I came back and I comfortably could park in my assigned spot again!” said Luik.

While the early bird will take the worm in the parking lot in the morning, it would be difficult to say the same for lunch, risking a good spot for some grub. Off-campus lunch is already a gamble of time, made worse if setbacks like a delay in an order due to a lunch rush were to add to the concerns of getting back to class on time. Many students would purposefully come back earlier to prevent their spots from being stolen. Now, students can enjoy their off-campus time with less worry about coming back. 

”I did ask some parts of administration: ‘hey, will juniors be reprimanded for parking in our spots?’ and they said yes, but yet I still never had a spot.” said Luik.

Generally, the administration does not do very well with checking who’s parking in the parking lot. With the more organized system, it will be much easier to manage and keep track of students who consistently park in other’s spots. It is a justice to seniors who previously took up the junior lot while juniors would take up the senior lot, despite seniors purchasing their area with a hefty price. 

With the assigned spots, it will give all registered students fair chance to arrive and leave campus in a civil manner, whether it be early morning, midday, or afternoon. Riding with a friend in the morning is exceedingly simple parking in the same spot everyday, even when dangerously late, compared to it being a renewed challenge everyday.

 “ It’s just going to be a lot less headache compared to the unassigned spots because no matter who I talk to no one liked the unassigned spots,” said Luik.

While parking can be tricky no matter the system, thank goodness administration picked the lesser of two evils for the rest of the school year.