One small sticker says it all. Your school, your grade, athletics. It can trace back to any student on campus, and it is one of the least favorite administrative orders in school, probably because it costs $15 out of students’ pockets.
Every year, Principal Dr. Jay Pickering and assistants urge every student driver to buy a parking tag for his or her vehicle, and while drivers may disagree with the decision, Pickering said it’s a necessity on campus.“The main reason for having parking tags is for safety and security purposes,” he said. “We want to make sure we identify all of our cars on campus as student cars and visitors’ cars.”
So far, 514 tags have been sold, roughly a quarter of students who are old enough to drive legally and totaling $7,710. Pickering says the money received give back to the school in many ways.
“The funds go to an activity account,” he said. “That money goes to student lunches, like for the blood drive we just had, scholarship money and to buy certain things for teachers.”
Pickering also says there’s no excuse for any driver to not have a parking tag now, enlisting the help of the assistant principals to enforce the policy.
“This is our third week of school. They go through and make sure that when students come in, they have parking tags,” he said. “If not, we’ll follow the directives of the handbook.”
Assistant principal Rachel Rasburry said they also enlist the help of resource officers, and stickers will be placed on untagged cars as soon as next week. These stickers will request the car owner to visit the office and explain why he or she hasn’t purchased a tag.
Failure to comply with the policy include a first-time warning, up to five days of early morning detention and a fifth violation results in a loss of parking privileges for the remainder of the school year.
Rasburry said cooperation among students to purchase tags is common, despite the students’ negative opinion.
“Most cars are tagged,” she said. “Most of the students are really helping us with the safety factor, which is why we have the tags, and we’re very proud of that.”
Unlike previous years, parking tags are stickers that fit in the lower left-hand corner of the windshield. Rasburry said the stickers, not the traditional rearview mirror tags, are easier to keep in the car.
“We were having problems with those being removed,” she said. “Students wouldn’t lock their cars or they would get lost. We think this new sticker that fits to the windshield will stay there
A random raffle drawing was presented Sept. 6 during the pep rally for students who’d purchased tags, one of the various ways school administrators are giving back to the student body for their cooperation.
