Outrage has been voiced since the beginning of the school year on the driving and parking chaos that happens during drop-off and pick-up times.

Due to an increase in traffic, there are higher tendencies for reckless drivers and car crashes. Most of the time, the blame goes towards the fact that there are many students drivers but parent drivers are also at fault.

Although students are newer at driving, they know the ins and the outs of the parking lot. If parents would respect the priority that student drivers have earned, traffic would be much more organized.

Compromise is key. If everyone could compromise, traffic would go by much quicker.

The fact that parents show up more than 30 minutes early to pick up their kids is astonishing and quite pointless in the end. Even if a parent was ready to go to pick up their child, they still would have to walk from their class to the parking lot, while looking around to spot their parents in line. It is not a super quick process.

Student drivers should have first priority when it comes to leaving the school. By the time it is 3:00pm, most students trying to leave have done so. If parents picking up their kids started arriving at 3:00pm., it would be easier to open up the parking lot for parents so that they could park and wait for their child to walk to the car.

Parents have been dangerously dropping off and picking up their kids at the Rancho San Juan community entrance across the street from the baseball fields. There have been many accidents resulting from this threatening habit including last year, when two students were actually hit by cars, leaving one in critical condition.

One community member, Stacey Santley, experienced a scare when her daughter had a seizure and was delayed getting her to the doctor because of the traffic that was caused by parents parking at the gate and blocking the exit.

“One woman in a white van just looked at me, shrugged her shoulders as if to say ‘too bad’ and cut in front of me. I was in shock… If only they knew what was happening… I was heartbroken that people could be so rude, inconsiderate, and how their actions prolonged my daughters discomfort in the car.” said Santley.

The community entrance was not built as a drop off or a pick up center and most definitely should not be used as one.

Although student drivers live underneath the stereotype of being careless and taking risks while driving, parents also make the same mistakes while rushing to drop off their children on time. Although parents have been driving much longer, it doesn’t give them seniority over students drivers trying to get to school.

SJHHS has only one entry and exit for students going to school. Because of this, the community needs to work together to prevent chaos and injury. At the beginning of the day, patiently waiting in line is all one can do. Setting up carpools is one minor effort that can potentially cause major results.

When it comes time to picking up students, arriving at the school 15 minutes after it gets out instead of 30 minutes before is one thing that could make a big difference, along with respecting the neighbors and not blocking the community entrances.

Making smart and logical decisions is not only important for student drivers, but parent drivers so when it comes to keeping everyone safe.