If someone was to go onto the Lamar website to see what our lovely school has to offer in terms of parking accommodations they would see a total of seven words: “‘PARKING’ Last Modified on August 31, 2021.” This vague and cryptic announcement begs the question, what is Lamar parking actually like?

10th grade teacher Kyle Alfred has a pretty good idea of the parking situation. 

“I have definitely almost gotten run over,” Alred said.

Alred elaborated, speaking to the situation in more broad terms.

“The parking situation at Lamar is fine in the morning but leaving is very difficult. I live about three blocks from Lamar and it takes me 35 minutes to get home,” Alred said.

This is an issue multiple teachers face, including French teacher Simon Chardey, who is very passionate about the whole ordeal.

“If cars are flowing through that traffic, all of those cars at the exit have to stop until there’s no more cars there,” Chardey said. “The police surveillance helps some of the time but they are not always there and as a consequence some people may come late and they’ll spend 10 minutes outside just waiting to get in.”

Chardey then detailed his own personal experience struggling to get out of the parking garage.

 “There was a time where I had to leave and pick up my daughters from their school, but was delayed by the amount of time I spent in the garage. By the time I left I was charged around 20 or 25 dollars,” Chardey said.

Chardey’s grievances extend beyond time concerns. He also spoke of safety within the parking garage.

“Oftentimes I spend entire lunch break in the garage so I get to see quite a bit and kids speed up like they don’t know the speed limits,” Chardey said.

Chardey’s parking concerns were proven valid by an anonymous source who admitted to recent driving mishaps.

“I hit two different cars in the parking garage while they were both parked,” Anonymous said.

They have also witnessed their fair share of mishaps in the parking garage. 

“I‘ve seen accidents happen with people trying to park and they run into and they rear end other cars.”

The parking situation as a whole is not very popular with the student body as sophomore Fiona Massey explains.

“It’s really horrible because there is not a lot of access for students who don’t have a parking garage spot or a spot at the church or have $200 a semester to park there which is obligated for seniors and juniors,” Massey said.

The students not lucky enough to get a spot in the garage have to find parking on the street, which can become very competitive. 

“Every morning I have to get to the street I park on early and one time I got there and all of the spots were taken and so I had to park even farther,” Massey said. “And one time I had to park in a 2 hour parking spot because everything else was taken and I got a traffic violation.”

This has potential to even become dangerous, especially when nobody really knows what they’re doing when it comes to parking.

“They [Lamar students] are horrendous at parking but neither am I so it’s okay,” Massey said.

This has led to several close encounters with said danger as Massey explained.

“I have almost got into so many accidents because the people here are so bad at driving and don’t know how to drive,” Massey said. “My sister has even gotten into an accident here.”

To prevent future accidents Alred has some suggestions for all that use the parking garage.

“People need to be responsible adults and kids. If they had more people out there controlling traffic at the end of the school day, especially right where the interest is, they would probably be better,” Alred said. “But I know that our traffic officers are often pulled away to deal with other situations. So that’s an issue that hopefully can be resolved.”