Unauthorized parking on campus has a set of new consequences. 

All vehicles without an official parking pass will be towed for a cost of $100. If the vehicle is just hooked, but not towed, there is a $25 fee. The fees will increase after Spring Break to $150 and $50, respectively. 

On top of that, if the vehicle isn’t picked up within 24 hours, there will be an $85 per day storage fee added. 

There are fewer parking spots this year due to the construction of Center II in the Patriot Lot. In previous years, this lot was used primarily by seniors. This year there are 286 total parking spots for students. 

Students are parking in fire lanes and medians. This is a combination of students who are authorized and unauthorized to park on campus. 

Security and administration have an extensive process for verifying if a vehicle is authorized to park on campus. 

Firstly, the School Security Officers and School Resource Officers walk the parking lots to identify cars without a parking pass. The SRO will then run the license plate and call the front office to verify the vehicle is not a visitor or substitute teacher. 

Then, fiscal administrator Whitney Yancey will verify that the vehicle is not attached to a student who had bought a pass in case the pass was lost. After all of these steps, the towing company is called. 

“We want towing to be our final option,” assistant principal Dr. Jill Dahl said. 

So far, only one vehicle has been towed. 

Students hold mixed feelings about these new measures.

“It’s unfair; there’s not enough spots for everyone,” senior Gabriel Guerra said, “They might have to add more spots to the gravel lot.”

“I’m all for the towing,” senior Abby Hernandez said. “If someone’s parking in my spot then yeah, they should get towed.”