Written by Emily Sordo and Rachel Ford |

When you put a bunch of new drivers together, there is always some parking lot troubles in high school. Put snow in the mix, and it’s another story. After experiencing our first big snow of the year, we also experienced what it’s like driving in the new Morgan parking lot under harsh weather conditions. Morgan had its first delay due to the snow last week. Some students decided to not attend school because they didn’t feel safe driving on the roads. An extra two hours for driveways to be plowed and roads to be salted, some would say, is not enough time for new drivers to safely be on the roads.

The parking lot for the new building was designed much more efficiently than Morgan’s old parking lot in the old building. There is usually less buildup than the mess that students endured trying to get out of school last year. Senior Juliana Ragonese said “I think the way the parking lot is set up, there aren’t as many weird divots, also because it’s new. In the old lot, there were certain paths that were just complete ice.” Still, the safety of the parking lot in the snow is truly determined by how plowed and salted it is. Senior Olivia Amendola and Olivia Powers both were concerned about not being able to see the spots in the parking lot very well because they were covered with snow.

The type of car a student drives definitely is a factor in how safe the student feels while driving in general. A car with four-wheel drive and snow tires is more suitable for the winter weather than a car that is made for anything but snow.  Senior Olivia Powers said she feels comfortable driving in the snow because she has four wheel drive.

Senior Tori Barron said she doesn’t feel very comfortable driving to school when the weather is bad. “That 2-hour delay the other day was not enough. If it’s snowing like that, we shouldn’t have school. That was dangerous to drive in for my car. I almost died.” Junior John Pryor said he sometimes doesn’t feel safe driving in bad weather conditions but only because he doesn’t trust other new drivers. He said it is important to drive slowly and carefully while driving in the snow.

However, the problems with ice and plowing could be because this was the first big snow the new Morgan experienced.  Hopefully, this was a learning experience, and the next time there is a snow day students will feel a lot safer in the parking lot.