Issues With the Parking Lot

Ever since school started and the bus drivers became short-staffed, the parking lot has been hectic with stopped traffic. Many parents are picking up their students now because of the long bus rides and in fear of the COVID-19. This problem is slowly getting fixed day by day; however, there is still a long journey ahead to getting everything back to normal. This issue has interfered with student drivers tremendously, such as conflicting with their work schedules and afternoon plans.

Many students are aware of this issue. One student driver states, “it is very frustrating because you have to sit in your hot car in 90-degree weather,” said junior Natalie Haslip. On days like these, everyone in the parking lot only cares about themselves, so they won’t let you in front of them to leave. This selfishness causes a lot of congested traffic. Another student also shows his perspective by saying, “it gets annoying because you feel rushed to leave,” said junior Nathan Gragg. In Gragg’s situation, he goes to work after school, so this issue has made it more complicated for him to get to work on time every day.

More people are affected by this issue than just students and parents. Officer Kevin Taylor directs this traffic every day after school and manages the impatient students and parents. He gave his input and noticed that “it is taking a little bit longer than previous years for students to be able to leave the back parking lot.” But at this point in the fourth week of school, things are slowly getting back on track, but Taylor’s primary focus is “safety in the back parking lot.” He has also noticed that “students can clear the back parking lot within about ten to fifteen minutes after being released.” To some students and parents, this is still too long, especially if they have afternoon plans. 

The students of FCHS want this issue to be solved, but no teacher or administrator can seem to find a solution. Haslip gave her input on how she thinks this could be fixed.  “I think we need administrators on each row in the parking lot guiding everyone out,” she said. This could be one solution; but, students don’t always listen to what they are being told. So, that could cause more uneasy and stressed people, which no one wants in this situation. Another possible solution a student gave was to “release student drivers at 3:30 pm instead of 3:38 pm,” said junior Taegan Chisholm. Ever since this hectic school year started, all drivers were released five minutes before the end of day bell. However, this hasn’t made a big difference. Some students who aren’t drivers want to leave class early, so they leave when drivers are released. This creates many problems and makes leaving early useless for people who need this time.  However, as we get deeper in the school year, it should get better, and things should get better and more well thought out.