Chapin High School’s parking has been a problem for years, but just recently parking has exploded into a war between seniors and juniors over the new blue headers designated for seniors leaving juniors out in no man’s land. This problem has people complaining and wanting answers. So how do we fix this problem?

On registration day before school started, every student getting a parking spot was told the same thing – “first come first serve.” Now every junior is asking why even though they are first to come they are the last to be served?  Just recently, blue parking headers were put into the tennis courts and Palmetto Woods. These parking headers are for seniors only. Two-hundred-sixty-five senior parking headers were placed throughout Palmetto Woods and the tennis courts leaving the juniors and sophomores to park in a wimpy one-hundred-and sixty five. It’s very easy for an outsider to say “so what” and move on, but for a person on the inside of the walls of Chapin High, it’s a big deal.

Juniors have been accused of being stuck up brats and ungrateful, but here’s a newsflash:  juniors have every right to be mad! The senior parking lot was supposed to be finished before any student walked through the doors of Chapin High School this year, but did that happen – no! We have no control over construction, so why is it that students are getting cheated because something  wasn’t finished when it was supposed to be? Of course seniors deserve senior parking but it shouldn’t take away from others to get them their parking spaces.

Transportation is one of the main aspects of school which means it should be one of the first priorities. Instead of putting up new TV’s all over the school, why are we not worrying about what has a lot of students upset? It is not a building that needs to be built, but a parking lot and therefore it should get done so this is not an issue anymore. Everyone who has had a hand in deciding the parking arrangement has said there is a parking spot for every senior – no more and no less. Everyone can say that as juniors laugh and look at all the open senior parking spaces available they could have parked in. Giving seniors parking spaces is one thing, but giving them more than they need and making juniors park farther away is just unfair.
There is a simple solution to this problem – fix it! Finish the senior parking lot like it was promised and give the juniors Palmetto Woods back. School should be a place for learning – not a place for grades to fight over where to park. It is unnecessary to have such a mess when there is such an easy way not to. Seniors deserve a privilege for all that they have gone through and juniors deserve respect for what they’re going through. So let’s put the plan to fix this problem in drive and clean up this mess!