The gas pedal becomes temptation, the brake becomes a savior– the road has rules, but the parking lot has become a race track. Whether it is students doing donuts before school starts or students speeding to be the first ones out of the lot after school, the parking lot lacks necessary safety. 
Every morning, it is a game of Crossy Road trying to get to performing arts doors. From students flying to find a parking spot to parents dropping off their kids, there is no order when it comes to the pa rking lot.
In a survey of 120 FC students, 44 kids said that they do not feel safe in the parking lot during the morning and during dismissal, while 50 students said only sometimes do they feel safe.
It is ridiculous that this many students feel as if they are unsafe. Very few safety measures have been implemented, including the bare minimum of installing cameras. What happens when a car is broken into? Or if there’s a fight that breaks out after a school event?
There has been minimal effort to make our parking lot safer, the most recent addition being signs posted along the side of the road stating “No student drop-off.” But beyond this, what effort has been made to enforce the rule?
None.
Signs have not stopped parent drop-off. For myself, I have had close calls with parents flying through the parking lot just to drop off their students. Then, their child takes several minutes to get out of the car and backs up an entire line of students trying to park.
After school dismissal is disastrous. The one-way roads become two-ways and students fly out to escape before the buses leave. There is no order in the parking lot, zipper merging cannot save the lot. So when kids are battling to be the first ones to escape, what happens? Accidents.
Our school has made no changes. The parking lot lacks cameras to find who was at fault when students do inevitably hit another vehicle. In many parking lots, one can find cameras placed on the light poles throughout. However, for some reason at our school, we cannot find them at all.
This is outdated and ridiculous. If we can afford cameras throughout the school halls, why can we not afford them outside where the real danger can take place? Anyone can enter our parking lots. What happens when there is a school dance and a dangerous person waits in our parking lots to prey on students leaving early?
Why must we wait until a student is attacked for changes to be made?
Our school needs to be proactive and take initiative to keep our students safe. While cameras will help, there is a role that our administration could take.
In the same survey, 27 kids claimed that their vehicle had been hit or struck while in the parking lot.
We do often have someone directing traffic outside the parking lot and we have someone directing the car rider line. Yet having someone standing in the parking lot to direct student drivers, especially in hot spots where students are trying to merge in while others are fleeing, would take a lot of the tension away and give order to everyone’s escape. This would ensure adequate merging and even consequences for students’ aggressive driving. To kill two birds with one stone, it would also help stop parents from dropping off their students in the parking lot. Even their presence would help deter students from making poor choices and discourage parents.
Aggressive driving can be common in our parking lots, but especially speeding is a problem. For some students, they speed because they are ignorant of the speed limit. In that survey, 19 students said that they believed the speed limit in the parking lot is 20mph or higher. That is twice the limit; our speed limit is 10mph. We have signs posted throughout the lot about student drop-off. Another easy way to make our parking lot safer is to display the speed limit.
School lots are full of new drivers and many times, new drivers forget the speed limit in the parking lot. Giving a reminder throughout the lot would help many who may just forget.
While some may forget, others disregard the speed limit completely.
“People don’t like to brake. They go really fast and expect you to stop and they expect you to stop, and they’re just like, they’re not gonna wait for you to stop. They’d rather just keep going full speed,” said senior Becky Martinez.
Behind the school and in the teacher lot, there are many, many speed bumps. As obnoxious as they may be, they slow drivers down. So why is it that in a smaller teacher parking lot, they have speed bumps, but in a lot designated for new and often impulsive drivers, there are none?
Of course, they are necessary in both lots. However, there is no reason for them not to put them into the student lot as well. This would help prevent a lot of dangerous situations such as speeding.
Lastly, crossing the parking lot during morning time and dismissal is difficult, to say the least. It is like a horde of zombies versus a race track. There are no cross walks that are designated for students to walk. These crosswalks would ensure order in our parking lots, signaling where it is safe to walk and where cars must yield to pedestrians.
In recent times, our district has paid and had our parking lots repainted. It would have been easy to insert crosswalks where students should be walking to create safer ways for students to walk to their cars.
Many of these safety precautions seem like common sense and are already implemented in many parking lots throughout the world. From cameras to crosswalks, many of these are easy ways that could protect our students. The lack of safety is ridiculous and the administration needs to take a stand before a student loses their life on school grounds. Many accidents are completely avoidable. Especially having an admin out in the lot during the height of dismissal and the morning, this would protect a lot of students and finally give consequences to the individuals who are choosing to create unsafe environments.
Students having harsher consequences for their actions in the lot and admin creating a presence in the lot would not only benefit the safety of students, but also ensure efficiency in dismissal.
