Over the Edge: Students deserve warnings for questionable parking techniques

“You are illegally parked and are subject to a $25 FINE. Please pay immediately in the Principal’s office.”

This is not the welcome anyone would expect to receive driving home from school, but sure enough, on my front window, held tight by the windshield wiper, was a parking ticket. Lucky me.

Twenty five dollars for an inch or two over the yellow line. Twenty five dollars and there goes hours of work at minimum wage.

Cedar Falls High School is charging its own students for parking incorrectly. I think this is outrageous because we already have the city’s cops doing this.

There are four main points that support my want for change. These two go together: (a) people don’t even know they can get these tickets, and (b) there is no warning, just a ticket right off the bat. I feel that if students were more aware of the parking areas around the school being checked for error, more students would pay attention to their own parking jobs. Also, (c) these parking tickets are insanely expensive. Twenty five dollars for one ticket especially for students working at minimum wage or that have no steady job is hard to come by. Another fluke, (d) is that some people get off and others don’t. Doesn’t it make sense that it should be the same policy for everyone, no matter what that policy is?

This is why I am volunteering an easy solution. This standard has to do with what is fair and what is not, because really? We have all seen those vehicles who are halfway over the line, their rears are sticking out, or they are parked conveniently between two parking spaces. I don’t know if it is to be funny sometimes, but what I do know is that it is not fair that only certain vehicles receive tickets when horrendous parking jobs like the ones mentioned are let off the hook. Well, life just isn’t fair you might say. But ah! There is a way to make the system more just. Every school year, each student’s first parking violation should be a warning. That way there are no surprises. Also, this way certain people are not getting off the hook with warnings and other people aren’t. It will be the same for everyone. There won’t be any more, “Last week I decided I was done handing out warnings.” No, there won’t be any funky day where “I’m sorry” is no longer good enough.

If Cedar Falls High School is going to enforce giving its students parking tickets, there has to be a system known to the student body. Just as in kindergarten, when you could get moved from green to yellow light, but if you got to red light that meant you were in real trouble. Well, we aren’t in kindergarten anymore, but I believe there should still be a way to instigate a level of warning before fines are filled out and paid.