One of the most exciting parts of being a teen is getting your license. One of the worst things about high school is taking the bus. So wouldn’t it be upsetting if you finally got your license, but there wasn’t any room for you to park at school?

Here at Pentucket High School, parking spots cause more fights and frustration than anything. There are simply not enough spots for the amount of students and staff that are able to drive.

With a minimum of 373 students old enough to have a driver license, over 100 administrators, staff, and teachers, 294 parking spots is simply not enough to go around. Adults come first, of course, since it is their job to come to school. But isn’t that the students job too?

The office constantly shuts people down when they ask the famous question, “Can I have a parking spot?”

Pentucket junior, Jenny Nelson, says “Maddie and I [Jenny’s twin] got our license but there’s nowhere for us to park. With all of the softball equipment that I need to bring to school for practice, it adds up to three bags. “

Jenny goes on to say that this is far too much baggage to bring on the bus, so her father has to drive her and her sister to school every day. Not only does Mr. Nelson have to drive the girls to school, he also has to pick them up since they are not allowed to drive a car to school.

Pentucket Junior, Emmy Desjardins, on the other hand was lucky enough to get a spot. But as of right now, she is injured and the walk from her assigned parking spot is too long; “I told the office I was going to park closer because I’m a cripple. I think the spot I’ve been using is a visitors spot, but it could be a student’s.”

Thankfully, Emmy was allowed to take a closer spot, but what if there wasn’t room like usual?

Pentucket senior, Abby Lane, complains that, “They’re [the parking spots] too small … one time I was driving a dually and I could barely fit into my spot.” The lack of space sets teen drivers up for crashes.

The worst part of it all is the price that comes along with parking. Each student must pay a fee of $180 a year to park at the school. The teachers, on the other hand, park for free.

When asked what her thoughts are on paying, Pentucket junior, Kelley Murray says, “I think it’s fair that we pay, but we pay too much. Timberland is a regional high school like us, and their students only have to pay around $20 a year in order to park at the school.”

When all is said and done, the school makes roughly $35,000 a year from the money that is given from students so that they can drive to school. You would think that this money would help us make a bigger parking lot, right?

Assistant Principal, Mr. Evans, here at Pentucket is the one in charge of all of this chaos. He says, “I wish that I could give everybody a parking spot, but with the school building taking up so much room, there isn’t anywhere to add spots.”

He also explains that parking is a senior privilege, and that the left over spots go to the juniors, “The seniors here do not have many privileges, so I want to give every one of them a parking spot if they want one.”

Mr. Evans says that if we were to get new facilities, the best thing to do would be to make the building three or four stories. This way, there would be much more room for parking, and lots less mayhem.

Hopefully we will have a new building and a bigger parking lot someday here at Pentucket Regional High School, but for now, we’ll just have to do our best with what we have.