The complaints were ranted and raved about during the assembly—and barely anybody truly took the parking policy into consideration.
It’s not a secret: students have encountered a few accidents this year. Some were minor and unreported, others put forth serious damage and some will even be taken to court.
The accidents are the first for many KHS students, and many jumped to the conclusion that the accidents were the reason that the parking lot policy changed.
“The main reason was safety,” Dean Renee Grisch said. “There were just too many close calls, and we had to change the policy.”
Many students complained and asked questions to one another, but because few had the courage to ask administrators, most of us didn’t get the answers. We did, and we’re here to inform the student body about it.
So, why change the policy this year, and why in the middle of it?
“We did it later in the year because of the changing-of-the-guards,” Grisch said.
We have new administrators and security personnel, as well as a new school resource officer. It’s unreasonable to expect them to identify the problem on the first day.
Why didn’t they warn us before starting to revoke parking passes for speeding?
Actually, they covered warning part, but some of us didn’t realize it. There is actually a statement in the handbook saying we could have our parking passes revoked, with no distinct amount of time listed. We signed sheets saying we’d read the policies.
Why did they tell us in a giant assembly, where there was no opportunity for us to ask questions?
“Our estimations were off. We had no idea that so many people were going to show up. If we had known, we would’ve used a different method,” Grisch said.
We agree that a different method would have been more effective.
Handing students a piece of paper after the assembly with a little diagram didn’t get anyone’s attention.
Yes, arrows and lines are all good, but let’s be realistic: we’re teenagers. There’s some of us that will suck it up, there’s some of us that don’t care, and there’s some of us that will “fight the power.”
We deserved an explanation, thorough reasonings (like saying we might be flattened by a huge yellow bus) and a warning.
Here’s a suggestion: when the administration went to every classroom to explain STEP to students last year, a small group setting was more effective than dragging us all into the gym or the auditorium. It was carefully explained, and we were able to ask questions because it was a small group. It reached us, and it was a better idea than the assembly.
Although the school could’ve communicated the policy better, we students also need to realize our faults.
What we could’ve done differently was understand the concern and the duty the school has to enforce strict safety rules to keep everyone safe. They are looking out for our best interests.
We’re not saying that everyone complained. “I like the parking lot [policy] because it’s a lot faster and efficient,” senior Samantha Heinle said.
We’re merely suggesting to those students who had so much to say: just give change a chance. Yes, certain things are hard to adjust to, but not all things are altered to ruin our lives.
We had trouble finding fault with the new parking policy after the administration explained it. They wanted to save us from accidents and close-calls. What’s so bad about that? They wanted to get us out quicker too.
“You guys are getting out well before the second wave of buses even comes through,” Grisch said.
That’s all they really had to do: take the time to explain and treat us like adults. We just had to be adult enough to listen.