Parking lot violations to be strictly enforced

November 7, 2008
Filed under News

Derrick Malnar
Staff Writer

You get to school five minutes late and enter the massive student parking lot of Lufkin High School. The only spot you can find is in the very back of the lot and you don’t want to have to walk that far. So you take a risk and park in the teachers parking lot, or even by the Ag building. So what if you get an orange sticker? You can just get it off with a little Windex and some elbow grease. But starting soon, after that first little sticker, it may cost you more than a few minutes to take care of the consequence, and you may find yourself temporarily without a car.

“I have made threats in the past but now people are not taking them seriously,” Senior Principal John Ball said. “So it’s time to put them to action.”

The main violations, as anyone would expect, are leaving campus without permission, failing to provide a visible parking tag, students parking everywhere but the student parking lot, vandalism, and even theft.

“I just want to encourage the students and faculty to lock their vehicles during school hours,” Ball said.

Another common violation is students parking in the teacher’s parking lot since construction by the band hall has began.

“Walking a little bit farther is just a small piece we have to pay for getting an auditorium that we have needed since the beginning,” Ball said.

Something new this year that Ball has not done in the past is that every issued violation is entered into a database. Now, they can now keep track of how many violations each person has, which will come in handy when Ball begins telling the wrecker service what cars need to be towed. Yes, that’s right, towed.

“If you have had one or more violation stickers you are acceptable for towing,” Ball said. “At this point I have gotten in touch with the wrecker service and if your car is towed it will cost you $75 to recover with a $21 a day holding fee.”

Even though they are enforcing the rules and creating new consequences for their violators, what we may not be able to see beyond the small inconvenience it adds to the day is that in the end it is all for a good reason.

“It is all just for safety of the students and faculty,” said Ball.

So save yourself a little time, trouble, and precious cash, and park where you are supposed to.