Students often complain that the parking on campus is a nightmare  due to required parking permits which allow students and staff to park in the Irvington parking lot with a small fee, but these permits serve as a source of funding behind maintaining the school parking lot and other school utilities  They can also be very helpful when identifying trespassers on campus and provide funding for school activities. Parking permits are necessary because they ensure the safety of students and staff and makes parking at school easier.

The safety of the students is the first priority of the school, and parking permits help enforce that. If a stranger enters the campus, parking permits allow the school to differentiate between a student’s car and a stranger’s car and makes alerting everyone at school faster. This is why everyone, including teachers, students, and staff are required to have a parking permit.

The money made from the parking permits go to Irvington’s funds and are used by ASG for maintaining school’s condition and pay for repairs. It goes to a variety of sources, from paint on school walls to parking cones and traffic signage. At the end of the day, the money goes back to the students, so there really is no reason to complain.  Students still protest that the price of parking permits, which is fifteen dollars, and the fines for violations that follow with it are too high, but this money is used towards the school and benefits the students—their money to essentially coming back to them. As for fines from violations, students are given reasonable chances to fix their mistakes. The first violation of the rules is a warning, the second time is a fine of $15, the third violation is a fine of $30, and the fourth is $50. The fifth time a student parks their car on campus without a parking permit, the student loses their parking privileges and their car gets booted, where a large contraption is attached around the tire of a car so it can’t be moved. Despite the severity of the consequences, students have a responsibility to follow the rules of the school, rules which are established to keep them safe. If they are incapable of following these rules, they should not be driving in the first place.

To sum it up, parking permits are not only there to keep students and staff from harm, but also provide funding for maintaining the school. For the sake of students and staff, please obey the traffic procedures—they’re there to keep you safe!