Dear Parents of Parkway Central,
As high school students and parents of high school students, we must all find a way for our transportation to and from school to function correctly. This often is a struggle in a slow parking lot with one entrance and exit. Although we may not see eye to eye, *we must coexist in order for all of us to be on time to our respective places. The following are the laws of the lot designed to make the parking experience fair and more efficient for all of us:
1.You have your lane, we have our lane, keep it that way.
When pulling into school every day, there are two lanes separated by a median. The right lane leads straight to an exit while the left one leads to the parking lot, then the exit. The right one is designed for everyone dropping off their kids while the left one is designed for students to pull into the parking lot. But many of you pull into the student lane, stop, and wait for your children to nonchalantly grab their bags and get out, holding up our lane in the process. As a general rule of thumb, if you are dropping someone off, you should probably use the drop off lane. I know it may be hard for you to comprehend but their are other
people in the world besides you, and when you do this it slows all of us down, along with it having the potential to be dangerous. We understand that our lane moves faster, but when parents constantly let their kids off, it ends up just making both lanes slow. For now on, use the lane that is designed for you and we will use the lane designed for us.
2.You are not more important than buses.
After school every day, the morning student lane turns into the parent lane and the parent lane turns into the bus lane. However, some of you decide to bypass the parent lane and go into the bus lane in order to get out quicker. While this may surprise you, your one or two glorious gifts to the world are not more important than a bus full of children. Also, if you think that your cute little minivan can go up against a bus, you’re in for a rude awakening.
- Teachers may actually have to get out of the teachers lot.
Instead of waiting in the bus line or, god forbid, the parents line like you are supposed to do, many of you decide to pull in the teacher’s lot and wait for your kids after school. This would be fine if teachers could actually exit the lot designated for them, but unfortunately, they cannot because you’re blocking the exit. Also, do not wait on the road that connects the middle and high school and further clog up traffic of students and teachers leaving school. Though it might surprise you, a No Parking sign does not mean, “I’m going to wait here 10 minutes until my child gets out of school.” It actually means no parking.
- Stopping for the pedestrian is kind of important.
Every day, students park their cars with relative ease then take the dangerous journey across the parent lane toward the building. Many times you all are in such a rush that you ignore the law and speed through the crosswalk while making us come to a halt. Let’s not try to replace the hood ornament on your car with a high school student. It might be a difficult concept to not try to set speed records while escaping the parking lot, but I feel like you’re perfectly capable of understanding it: you can stop for students, or you can hit someone. You’re going to be the one paying the medical bills, not us.
- Double Parking on a two lane road side doesn’t make for good results.
When trying to leave school, some of you decide it is a smart idea to park in both lanes while waiting for your precious children. If you park in the left lane AND the right lane, then it is difficult to get out. Imagine you are one of the cars behind you and your kid came out early. You still have to wait in line until the child of the parent in front of you comes out. Does it really make sense to make you wait all that time? Of course not. So how about you wait for your child in one lane and pull out to leave in the other instead of making it an inefficient free-for-all.
- If you get to school at 2:00 p.m., it’s time to find a hobby.
Although it is great that some of you care about your children more than anything else, there comes a point where it is crossing the line — like waiting 30 minutes for your children to get out of school. Instead of waiting in your car, you can be doing more productive things in those 30 minutes. I hear scrapbooking is a fun hobby, and you can show your love for your children by spending time on a keepsake for them instead. Other things that would be more rewarding than sitting in your car include collecting stamps, knitting and watching paint dry.
7.You are not the only one in a rush. Sometimes you have to wait your turn like everyone else.
Most of the problems stated are caused by inconsiderate parents rushing to work and home. What very few of you realize is that students are in just as much of a rush. As a student who refuses to get to school before 7:30 a.m., I tend to be in a rush to get to where I am going. Despite this, I never try to cut the line or do some…questionable things in order to gain a minute or two. If you really need to get to work on time in the mornings, I have a crazy idea for you: how about you leave home earlier? And if your child doesn’t like that, Parkway does provide a transportation service.
Sincerely,
Concerned Student