Opinion by Blaise Anton

Parking at Mount Vernon High School is currently an issue. Ask any student, or member of the faculty about the parking situation, and they will likely reply that it is inconvenient and poorly thought out. It is common to find student vehicles parked on the grass, and clearly marked “no parking” areas, simply because it is necessary if they want to park a reasonable distance from the school.

In the spring months, more and more freshmean and sophomores get their school permits and intermediate licenses, leading to excessive cars, and only a finite number of parking spaces. As these spaces disappear, students are forced to park in more and more obscure places, creating many problems for both practical and safety reasons. When a student parks in a designated “no parking” zone, they are subject to a fine and potentially a detention, just because they want to park their car near the school. Personally, I do not believe the student population should be punished for the lack of parking provided. The other option for students is to park along the driveway leading down to the middle school and highschool and crosswalk stop sign. When a car is parked in this lane, it creates blind spots for people entering and exiting the school, increasing the likelihood of a collision, or in the worst case, they could hit one of the  middleb school or elementary kids trying to walk across the crosswalk.

I believe that parking upgrades should be made a priority. There is ample amounts of space behind the locker rooms that could be converted into more parking lots. The district also owns the hayfield to the north and south of the school, and these would be put to much better use if they could be used as parking, and in the best case, and additional entrance/exit would greatly increase the flow and safety for driving to school.

While funding and planning are an issue for these changes do happen, there is no excuse for not addressing these problems. They need to happen sooner rather than later or else this problem is just going to continue to get worse.

Students and staff both want a change to our parking layout and availability, so I believe improvements should be made a priority.