Allison Pea – More Supervision

If there is one thing I have learned from my time in high school, it’s that the parking lot is an absolute disaster from about 3:15 to 4. Throughout the years, Cathedral has attempted to come up with solutions to the problem from color coded parking passes to crossing guards. However, it would appear as though we have completely given up with students blatantly ignoring the color of their parking passes (I’m talking to the juniors who park in senior lot) or just not having one entirely (cough, cough, sophomores).

With the parking lot consisting of mostly new drivers, some of which don’t even have a parking pass and don’t have any desire to get one, there is only one quite obvious solution: we need crossing guards outside after school. This would help combat these hooligans, who appear to have a complete disregard for both the school rules and basic traffic laws. To quote a famously bad driver who wears a yellow plaid outfit “Not to be a trader to my generation or anything but I don’t get the way teenagers (drive) nowadays.” They are notorious for acting like complete fools until they have someone there to hold them responsible for their actions thus proving that the obvious solution is crossing guards. Not only would they hold students accountable which would increase the overall safety of the parking lot for everyone but if worse comes to worse they would make an excellent addition as human traffic cones which are way worse to hit than regular traffic cones. We don’t even need actual crossing guards.

History Teacher, Mr. Anthony Ernst, used to do a wonderful job of helping the parking lot move smoothly everyday. All I am saying is that it would be nice to not have to leave school every day in combat mode with the ultimate goal being to get out of the parking lot without scratching my car by a respectable time and the best way to achieve this would be implementing crossing guards.

Luke Spencer – Honor Parking Passes

As we approach the end of the school year, a common issue has once again reemerged on The Hill. That would be the parking lot problem. Anyone who has ever set foot on Cathedral’s campus can tell that the parking situation is less than ideal. The school is landlocked on all sides, which limits space to begin with, but usually it is not much of a problem for the first semester of each school year. 

The real issue begins after winter break, when the sophomore class begins to get their licenses and drive to school. These new drivers do not have parking permits to park in the lot, as all of the passes have been given out to juniors and seniors. But why would a sophomore or their parents want to drive them to school every day when they are perfectly capable of driving themselves? Using this logic, every year sophomores drive to school and park without passes every day once they get their licenses. That causes problems.

Take a trip out to the parking lot during the school day and you will find it literally overflowing with cars. Students have begun to “invent” parking spots at the end of each row, and some kids even park in the middle of the lanes. This problem makes leaving the parking lot at the end of the day an absolute fiasco for everyone. It is common to see multiple little accidents happen when one student rear-ends another while trying to maneuver through the crowded lot.

While the problem of parking spaces cannot be fixed due to the landlock, what can be fixed is the enforcement of parking passes. Someone needs to be out in the parking lot, giving tickets to students who park without passes. It’s the only plausible way to fix this problem, which is becoming more hazardous by the day.