Anger rose through the student body after it was announced that there would be no assigned parking for the coming school year. This statement was quickly dropped after many students made petitions, presentations, and essays on the subject. Now that the school year has arrived and we have assigned parking, there is peace in the parking lot. 

As we all know there are days when we sleep through our alarms. On these days we rush straight to school, knowing our parking spot will be there waiting for us. If we didn’t have assigned spots we would be rushing to school stressing about where to park. What happens if there are no open spots in the high school parking lot? You would then have to look in the LBC, and last case scenario the middle school parking lot causing you to be even later to class. Assigned parking actually decreases the number of tardies at our school. Also with assigned parking students don’t need to come to school terribly early just to get a parking spot. 

When students are late they are very prone to speeding and not paying attention. If there is a student speeding through stop signs so that they can find a spot at the high school what happens if they don’t see someone? An accident occurs. With assigned parking students don’t have to worry about finding a parking spot it’s just there.

Assigned parking is also a lot easier for everyone. With assigned parking, the office knows exactly where each and every student and teacher park. That way if any situation occurs, whether it is theft, fights, accidents, or unknown vehicles, the police, along with the school, know who parks where. Thus creating a safer and more organized environment for students.

Another benefit of assigned parking is it helps students create a routine, because of this routine it creates a less accident-prone environment. By knowing who is around you and what time they normally leave reduces chaos in the parking lots. This reduces chaos in the parking lots. Mount Vernon also does something very nice with their way of assigning parking. They give seniority to seniors, meaning they pick their spots first. Then it goes down the list grade by grade. Same with teachers, they get to choose their spots which is great especially when those spots are close to their classroom. 

Some may say what is the point of assigned parking after we got over 75 new spots added to our high school? Though this seems like a lot with Mount Vernon’s over 440 students which is still growing in numbers. With these numbers, all students can not park in the high school parking lot. If the school lets students park in whatever spot they would like chaos would strike. 

The success of assigned parking has shown for many years at our school. Keeping assigned parking would mean less chaos, less accident-prone, and overall less stress for students and teachers. This is why for good reasons the school switched back to assigned parking and will for years to come.