Every year, students who drive themselves to school are required to buy a parking pass to hang in their cars, showing that they are allowed to park at GHS. These passes are not too expensive, but are they really necessary?

Off the bat, this does not seem like a very big deal, as the prices of the parking passes are only $15, which is not bad. However, it is not the price that I see a problem with. I do not believe students should have to pay money to park in a public school lot. Students are not paying for a specific parking spot or for any kind of benefit, they are simply paying for the ability to bring themselves to school. 

Paying for parking passes is not something exclusive to Greenwood. Center Grove and Whiteland both have to pay $20 and Franklin Community has to pay $15. However, none of these schools seem to punish students nearly as much as GHS. Both Whiteland and Franklin administrations have yet to do anything about students not having parking passes this year, and it is apparently common for some students to just not buy passes at both of these schools. Center Grove is a little more extreme, threatening to tow cars after three warnings, but at least the students get warnings before being punished heavily.

If students choose not to pay for one of these passes, an administrator will come out to the parking lot and stick a big, bright green sticker on the window of the car. I can say from personal experience that these stickers are far from easy to get off. When I tried to peel them, they ripped instead of coming off cleanly, so I had to use a razor blade. And, once the sticker was off, it left an annoying layer of residue that I had to scrub with hot water and soap to get off. And, the longer people leave them on the car, the harder they become to remove.

While it is just easier to submit and pay the small fee for a parking pass, other problems can still arise. I have a friend who has a parking pass but still got a sticker put on her truck because her pass was not displayed correctly. There have also been times when my car, being made in 2008, has had problems, so I had to take it to a shop. During this time, I have had to borrow my parents’ nicer vehicles to drive to school. Had an administrator decided to go check the parking lot while I was driving my parents’ vehicles, I would have had a sticker put on their cars because I do not have parking passes for those vehicles.

While it may not be a big deal to pay the annual $15 for a parking pass, I just do not think it should be required for students to pay to park here.