This submission is in response to “The Gulf Breeze Parking Problem” by Kristen Thompson in the Dec. 2021 issue of “The Blue and Gold.”

“…the school isn’t responsible for you waking up late and won’t create more parking so you can continue to do so.”

  Throughout the school year, student parking has been the hot topic of Gulf Breeze High School and for good reason. The issue has caused its fair share of headaches and frustration for both students and faculty.

   The main issue students have with the situation is the amount of parking stickers sold (~260) and the parking spaces available (235 in the junior lot/field house including gravel). While the simple solution may seem to just pave more spaces, you’d have to find a place to do it first.

   The students who believe the school is actively trying to rob them might be shocked to find out that the school doesn’t want to ticket their students or rob them of $20. In fact, I spoke to Officer Eskridge and when asked about writing tickets he stated that, “I hate writing those tickets.” And he only does it when he gets requested to by faculty being unable to park at the school.

   Even though the students of Gulf Breeze may believe they are entitled to a parking space because they bought the same parking space as everyone else, why wouldn’t the school oversell on parking spaces? Truly think about it. Why would the school sell the exact number of spaces? This would just result in students complaining about the excess spots not available to them.

   The solutions that are able to fix the issue can’t be school mandated and need to be student created and carried out. The school can’t create more spaces and can’t change any spaces to student spots, as teachers who get to school after first period need them as much as a student rolling into school at 9:13 because they wanted Chick-fil-a.

   The issue needs to be taken into the hands of students, as we are the only ones who can keep each-other accountable without the $20 ticket. We merely need either a student ran club or SGA to come up with creative solutions that can make everyone happy. For now though, the school isn’t responsible for you waking up late and won’t create more parking so you can continue to do so.