School gives student drivers the ‘Boot’

Written by: Maria Gonzalez on March 2, 2010 at 11:36 am

Lufkin High School has found a new way to get students to pay tickets for driving to school without a student parking tag. The school has began using the “Boot” which is put on a car when penalty of tickets are owed and/or the school cannot get a hold of the owner.

According to senior grade Principal John Ball, the reason the school stared using the “Boot” was because cars on campus had unidentified drivers or unpaid tickets.

“Unidentified drivers are students who are driving to school and are parking in school property,” Ball said, “and the owner of the car is nowhere to be found, so the “Boot” helps us find the driver of the car.”

Using the device has lowered the number of students driving to school without a parking tag, and is getting them to pay their outstanding tickets, according to Ball.

He added that the school has not received any kind of negative attitude toward the school having to use the “Boot.”

Ball said students may be wondering how to prevent getting the boot on their vehicles and getting in trouble.

“(Students need to) be a legal driver and obey all parking rules,” he said. “Tickets are still being issued and the ‘Boot’ does not change the rules. Students need to think of what they are doing every morning before deciding to drive to school illegally.”

According to LHS parking lot guard Bryan McCarty, the students may not be the only one responsible for “Boots” being placed in their cars.

“Parents are aware of their teens driving to school illegal,” McCarty said, “yet they allow them to do so.”

McCarty said that about three to four tickets are issued each day with about one unidentified driver a week.