It has been over a year since Staff Writer, Lizzy Boulos, wrote the article “Does Anyone Care About Juniors Parking At School?” and the issue has arisen yet again now that this year’s juniors are occupying the lot.

Boulos raised the question, “Why has the administration only threatened to do something about it, and does anyone care?” This same question is raised once again this school year but without the same level of attention from the administration.

Seniors like Kalyani Karmaker believe that the administration doesn’t care about the juniors because if they did, “the juniors that park [there] would get into trouble.”

Even Junior Sean Tully agrees and said, “I feel like in the last few years, [they were strict] but not this school year. I’ve seen a couple of people who park there as a junior this year and haven’t gotten in trouble for it.”

Every year, juniors that pass their driver’s test and have access to a car, drive to school and park in the Senior lot. As a result, there are complaints every year, and a few juniors get caught doing so. Last year there were problems but this year it is a little too obvious that there are juniors in the lot due to the small size of this year’s Senior class. The class of 2023 only has around 280 students, meanwhile, the class of 2024 has 310 students, according to Counselor Christine Zakk. Despite the obviously crowded lot, the administration doesn’t seem to enforce the fact that it is the Senior lot and the Seniors paid to park in the lot.

The traffic in the lot has become worse and, at times, a little dangerous, with the sudden combination of seniors and juniors. Although the seniors aren’t the most experienced and safest drivers in the world, the juniors are even less experienced and this sentiment is supported by Karmaker.

When asked whether the administration should be more strict with Juniors parking in the lot, Karmaker thinks they should be more strict because of the crowded parking lot. According to her, “Some drive recklessly and cause the lot to be busier and more chaotic,” and the disadvantages of them occupying the lot lead to a “higher probability of accidents [and] longer times to get out of the lot.

This problem occurs every year but there never seems to be a permanent or enforced solution to the problem. When asked about what punishments would be fitting for catching Juniors in the lot, Karmaker said,” a call home and a lunch detention” or “even [the] possibility that they can’t park as a senior.”

On the other side of the coin, Tully had some deeper insight into the issue as well. When asked if he thinks Juniors should be able to park there, he thought “if we had more room for parking, we could have juniors park because right now not all juniors and seniors would be able to park which would make it unfair for people who wouldn’t have space to park.”

Although space is an obvious problem for why juniors shouldn’t be able to park in the lot, lack of fairness is part of the issue. As previously mentioned, seniors pay to park in the lot and even get a little sticker with information on it to stick inside the back window of their car. Juniors that sneakily park in the lot don’t pay or have said sticker with the information documented by the school.

This raises the question, could the solution not be enforced punishment but letting juniors park in the lot?

When asked about whether juniors should be able to pay to park in the lot, Tully said, “I think it would be a good idea to have juniors pay to get passes to park but again, [it] would be a first-come-first-serve deal because eventually, the school would run out of spots.”

To be more specific, the seniors pay and register every year and the remaining spots can be bought by juniors after a certain amount of time. Regardless of what the true solution may be, it is obvious to students, like Karmaker and Tully, the Senior Lot is overlooked and needs a little more regulation to prevent accidents, conflicts, or other forms of dissatisfaction.