Year after year, students have neglected to purchase parking passes, and every year students have occasionally gotten a warning sticker plastered on their windshield, but there has not been any further action to enforce the policy, until this year.
This fall, assistant principals have conducted two parking lot “stings,” the second of which, was Friday Oct. 22. Students who failed to show their parking passes when arriving to school were asked to buy one in the AP office or park a mile away from campus.
Parking attendant Greg Pruitt received his car boot the last week of October and said that he will start enforcing the boot rule as soon as possible.
And he wasn’t kidding. Senior Evan Beckman got a boot on his car Oct. 28.
“I was shocked I guess,” Beckman said. “I didn’t know that they would really follow through with it.”
But he has now since purchased a permit, which was the intention all along.
“[My parents] agreed that I should get a permit and that I should start looking for change [to pay for it],” Beckman said.
The 2010-2011 Leander Independent School District High School Student and Parent Handbook states, “Students who park on school property without a permit, or those who park in an area not designated for student use, may be subject to a $5 fine or Saturday Detention. Repeat offenders may have their permit revoked or their vehicle towed at the owner’s expense.”
The handbook fails to state that a car boot can be placed upon a vehicle.
However, the Texas Education Code, Sec. 37.106., VEHICLE IDENTIFIACTION INSIGNIA, states, “The board of trustees of a school district may provide for the issuance and use of suitable vehicle identification insignia. The board may bar or suspend a person from driving or parking a vehicle on any school property as a result of the person’s violation of any rule adopted by the board or of this subchapter.”
Although, many students disagree with the policy, a majority of the school population has already obtained a permit to park.
“The money goes to a general fund in the district that pay for the parking permits themselves, the lot upkeep and the parking attendant’s salary,” AP secretary Lori laws said.
However, some students believe that the money from our parent’s pockets should cover the parking expenses.
“Some juniors and seniors don’t have jobs, and some parents don’t want to pay $25,”senior Siobhan Martinez said. “We already pay school taxes and [the parking pass] should be included.”
While some students disagree, administrators are cracking down and enforcing the policy.
“It’s not fair if 80 percent of the kids get a parking permit and the other 20 percent are parking for free. The boot will act as a deterrent, and it will work,” Pruitt said.
