Parking has always been an issue in the WCHS community. But especially today due to the overcrowded parking lots filled with cars owned by people without passes. Security and school admins have cracked down on this and are becoming increasingly strict about illegal parking as they try to reduce the extensive number of close accidents in the school lots.
“There is an influx of illegal parking, so we have tried to take stronger measures. It would’ve been different last year because we would resort to towing,” WCHS security guard Terry A. Bell said.
A new method is being used to put warning stickers on cars without passes to scare the drivers into not parking illegally in the lot anymore. These stickers are bright orange and are stuck onto the car’s front window for drivers to spot immediately. These stickers are tough to take off as they are incredibly sticky.
“Even before we started ticketing students, teachers used to park without their permits repeatedly, so we would sticker staff,” Bell said. “We have even resorted to towing students and staff in previous years.”
Although this method has been used extensively, it has not been just students receiving warning stickers; teachers have as well. WCHS Computer Science teacher Mr. Ostry was one of the teachers who was ticketed and unhappy about it.
“Everyone knows my car. It is the most beautiful car out there,” Ostry said. “I just can not believe my car got ticketed while I was in my spot. I did not think it was going to happen.”
Ostry has been parking in his spot for the entire year and has not parked in a different place once, yet he still walked out of school to go home and walked out with a shiny orange sticker on his car.
“I have not put my pass up in forever because I always park in my spot. That’s my spot!
It is a unique car, and you’ll always see it in the same spot,” Ostry said. “It took me a good ten minutes to take the sticker off. I was frustrated because the sticker was not an easy peel-off. I was out there scrubbing, licking and peeling,”
While illegal parking will continue to be an issue, many WCHS students and teachers have complained that there are better and more effective ways to help reduce parking issues without putting up stickers.
“I think they should have given a warning before they started ticketing like they do when they do hall sweeps,” Ostry said. “Like when they’re doing hall sweeps that week and then you don’t know what day it is going to be. If they would have done that beforehand I would have then found my pass and put it up beforehand,” Ostry said.
