By: Arnav Singhal
Local Editor
Imagine someone who just got their license. This person has waited their entire life to get the opportunity to drive a car by themselves. Now, picture the year before that momentous occasion: hours of convincing their parents to let them take their permit test and skip some school. For students driving to school, the morning begins with intense competition: a third of the student body fighting it out for just fifty parking spots. The “winners” are then rewarded with a trek from a parking lot over half a mile away from their first-period class. Los Gatos High School should offer parking to all licensed students who demonstrate a reasonable need to drive. If the school expands student parking zones, parents’ and students’ stress would be reduced and students would be issued fewer parking citations.
The sense of independence that students first feel when receiving their licenses is shattered almost immediately. To many high schoolers, licenses mean more than comfort; it can be a necessity when both parents have to work and drop off their children opposite directions. However, as schools block students from driving, in coherence parents begin to limit their child’s driving capacities all year round. This in addition to limiting their driving often limits their sense of freedom. According to the Journal of Safety Research, young drivers who experience a lower sense of personal autonomy in their lives tend to act out and engage in heavier speeding as a way to seek thrill.
Students who do find a way to break past the barrier that the school sets up still face a plethora of struggles. On top of stress from classes, they have to leave for school an hour before school starts to find a spot within walking distance while simultaneously not violating the school’s rules. Although the school is taking actions to address this through the opening of the junior lot, the concentration of traffic results in exit times of over half an hour for juniors. The school can simply resolve the issue by reserving additional parking near the school to avoid clusters in a one-exit lot. To the other students, we do not provide reasonable circumstances. The leftover spots will remain open, but will also hinder students without extraneous conditions from driving to school and encourage them to take other modes of transportation like Valley Transportation Authority buses, biking, or carpooling.
If LGHS and similar schools provide students with reasonable space for parking near schools despite grade level or expand parking zones within the area, schools would be able to reduce stress on students’ academics, parent workload, and the amount of unsafe driving happening within their neighborhoods.
(Sources: Journal of Safety Research, Valley Transportation Authority)