Parking permits no longer required

April Serrano

Senior Gera Pminenov waits to park in the Daniel Pearl Magnet High School parking lot. Students say that parking this year is easier than last because there are fewer student drivers.

Elsie Morales
September 15, 2016

With fewer students driving to school and parking in the school’s parking lot, parking permits aren’t necessary.

Many high schools require students to show proof of a valid driver’s license and car insurance to be able to drive to school like Northridge Academy High School. There, students have to fill out an application in order to be able to park in their parking and provide their license number and the name of their insurance.

“I think it would be helpful (having parking permits),” senior Arianna Aguayo said. “It would help preserve the parking spots because sometime it gets pretty hectic.”

Toward the end of the year, students and staff needed a parking permit in order to park at the school due to nearby schools and facilities parking in Daniel Pearl Magnet High School’s (DPMHS) parking lot. For student drivers this year, having parking permits isn’t necessary for DPMHS.

“I don’t think it’s necessary any- more,” senior Gera Pminenov said. “I mean we have plenty of parking now that last year’s class is gone.”

There has also been a decrease in teens driving because of the costs, as reported by the article “Are teen drivers less dangerous or just driving less?” by CBS News. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, one third of the teens they interviewed that didn’t have a license said that it was due to money.

Teens that live in homes with incomes of less that $20,000, only 25 percent get licensed, while teens that live in households that earn more than $100,000 a year, only 75 percent get licensed.

With less students driving to school and none of the drivers from neighboring schoolsandofficesparkingintheschool’s parking lot, there isn’t a need for any parking permits.

“I think part of it is that our parking lot is so tiny and we pretty much know who is coming and going,” Principal Deb Smith said. “We don’t know that if kids that are driving a car are licensed or have insurance. (It is) something that I will look into.”