The newly  imposed Academic Magnet Parking lot situation for next school year is something almost all students are disagreeing with. We believe that next year, parking should remain the same, with assigned spots to each students and here are the reasons why.

1. Increased safety risks - By imposing this new parking lot system, it will not only put students driving to school, but any individuals in the parking lots at risk of harm. Students coming to school late will be required to drive more through the lot, searching for limited open spots. This will increase traffic and the chances of accidents in the school parking lot. Additionally, students will become more agressive when parking, trying to get the «best « spots first, and this aggression will lead to dangerous situations and heightened risks of accidents and people being harmed.
2. Juniors new to driving - The assigned parking spots in the past have been especially beneficial to the juniors as they are new drivers and not yet completely comfortable with being on the road and parking specially. The assigned spots provided juniors with a sense of security,  assurance, and consistency. They knew where their parking spots were, how to get there, and the best way of parking in them, becoming familiar with and not having to stress about it while driving to school. With the assigned spots being taken away, this sense of security for the juniors will be taken away and more stress will be put on the juniors and their driving specifically.
3. Unnecessary stress and problems in general - High School is a stressful time in everyone’s lives, especially when we choose to go to Academic Magnet. The stress of trying to get to school early to get a good spot in the « first come first serve « lots will just be another factor in the worries of Juniors and Seniors, which are arguably the most important years of high school and don’t need more stress factors. Not to mention students will most likely be waking up earlier to get to school earlier to get a better spot first, causing them to get less sleep at night, which is detrimental to our school performance and work ethic.
4. Fighting and drama - With this new parking situation, conflict between students is unavoidable and bound to happen. Students will unofficially claim spots as their own even if it’s a « first come first serve«  situation and problems will arise if someone else parks in that spot. For seniors specifically, senior year is all about unity and coming together as a grade, however this new parking situation will separate and cause more problems, within the seniors and juniors as well.
5. Late situation - With this new parking, more problems will arise for students arriving to school close to the bell or late. For students arriving close to 8:30, spots closer to the door will all be filled and unavailable, forcing students to park further from the door, which increases the possibility of them not making it inside school intime. Not to mention the added time taken to search and find the only couple of spots left at that time. This causes unneeded stress and worry for students who are running late and/ or stuck in traffic.
6. Assigned Spots allows for car and parking accommodations - In the past, choosing parking spots has allowed students to accomadate their spots with their car type, size, and parking ability. Without this choose, students will have inconsistent parking arrangements that will not always accomadate to their car and parking ability as their spots they are parking in will change day to day. This will lead to incessant stress for the students, increased conflicts, and increased chances for car accidents in the parking lot.
7. It takes away from the senior tradition of painting parking spots - With parking assigned by lot and not by spot, seniors will not be able to partake in the well known and anticipated tradition of painting and personalizing their own parking spots. Even though this  tradition seems so small, it is a key component to what makes senior year special and important.

In all, the past parking lot situation have provided students with a sense of security, no added stress. and has worked throughout the years with little to no flaws in the system.  This newly proposed system seems to have no benefits for the student and administrators, just downsides, which is concerning when considering next school year. We believe that this parking situation should remain the same with assigned spots as all the reasons listed above detail why. Many students already have a long commute to school, and by having a personal and assigned spot to park in after has an importance that can not be overstated.