This year students who drive to and from school every day are once again required to purchase a $10 parking pass. According to administration, these passes are primarily to support safety, allowing the school to identify cars that are authorized on school grounds. But if these passes are truly for the critical aspect of safety, why do they cost money? And why are they not strictly enforced?
On the first day of school it was brought to students’ attention that they must purchase a parking pass and would be given a form to do so. Once the form was filled out, students had to bring it to the office with cash or a check to pay the $10 fee and would in return receive an orange pass to hand from their rearview mirror.
According to the administration, the money does not go toward safety, but instead supports student needs. “The money goes to support kids that can’t afford a field trip, maybe a yearbook or something like that,” Luther said.
Morgan school vice principal Christopher Luther, explains the reasoning behind the parking fee. The profit will serve as a place for students in financial need – to participate in school activities. Luther stated, “there are kids that have said that they can’t pay, and then we’re going to dip into these very funds [to help them].”
School Resource Officer Brian Corbin admitted the cost can be frustrating. He added that “if making them free would increase compliance, then I think that’s a home run.”
While students pay for access, staff at he Morgan school have just recently started to receive parking passes for free. Without these passes, cars will not be able to be distinguished as authorized or not, potentially defeating the whole purpose of the new passes.
There is still the issue of unauthorized cars parking on campus, which can lead to concern in the case that there is an emergency, and we need to effectively check the parking lot. To minimize this issue, Luther plans to enforce the parking pass system by sending home letters to violators, sharing “what we have is a letter that I made this summer, it’ll go to the person’s family and say, the protocol, how you get it, the reason and this is why we’re asking, and that letter would be sent home.”
Officer Corbin agreed, saying the passes “create another layer of security, and allow us to do a search of the parking lot and make sure that these cars have passes,” he said. “God forbid there was ever an incident, it allows me to quickly identify that, and it saves time.”
But not everyone is convinced the system works. Students have noticed that passes are rarely checked or enforced. Without consistent monitoring, some feel the passes aren’t effective enough for purchasing.
Both Luther and Corbin admitted the system isn’t perfect. Not only do many students not yet have passes, but visitors park on campus without passes. Assigned parking has been floated as an idea, but Luther recalled it creating “chaos” in the past when students parked in each other’s spaces. Both Luther and Corbin agreed that forcing students into assigned spaces likely wouldn’t work. “Kids don’t want to be told exactly where to park,” Corbin said. That leaves enforcement, or the lack of enforcement, as the main problem, as well as the pricing.
Surrounding schools such as Daniel Hand are also required to pay a $60 fee for parking, as the school doesn’t have enough spots, but this is because their parking spots are first come first serve. Schools require students to pay due to the lack of available spots, which is not a problem at The Morgan School, so why do we still pay?
So far the increase of safety due to these passes is hypothetical and there has been no evidence that we could find proving that they are making the parking lot safer.
Due to lack of enforcement, students do not feel the urge to get them and question why they have to pay for something that is in place to increase safety, especially if most students and staff do not have them.
Student Government Parent and Guardian Outreach leader, Junior Hernika Signh says, “I do know a lot of people that don’t have parking passes that get away with it.” That being said, new rules such as the parking passes must be enforced for students to abide by them.
