Erie High School students that drive are very familiar with the massive road block that is in the parking lot every morning, the unwelcomed parents. 

The new K-8 school and freshman class comes with the new year and with them come the parents that decide Erie High is the right place to park. Even though Erie just recently expanded the front parking lot, the influx of parents from Erie and next door is leaving our upperclassmen students without parking spots. 

Although this issue has gotten better recently, the worst part of this issue was truly not right. From personal experience when parents enter our parking lot their defense goes up and they can be rude and might not even realize it. This is still no excuse for the encounters many students have had and walked away from with anger. Personally, coming into the parking lot and being told off with the flick of a hand is a terrible way to start the day. 

The sheer amount of frustration that comes from being on time for school to being late due to parents parking where they shouldn’t be is upsetting. Due to this issue, many students tend to be late for class, teachers then turn this on to the students and most of the time it is not even our fault. 

This became an even bigger issue at the end of last school year when Soaring Heights K-8 was putting on an event at the school next door. Parents filled the K-8 lot and then proceeded to fill the Erie lot including the bus loop. Our students who might have been coming back from an off block or lunch had to resort to parking in the surrounding grass, along curbs, or anywhere that offered space big enough to park a car. 

This can be avoided if parents just used the carved out space for our easily accessible drop off lane. This lane might take an extra five minutes to go through, but this leaves our driving Erie students an easier lot to navigate through and less chances for a wreck. 

Erie High students have all non verbally agreed on how the parking lot should work in the morning and afternoon. This sudden increase in parents activity in the lot has caused anger and unnecessary issues with students that could be avoided. If parents could follow the rules with the students all issues could be resolved.