Unfortunately, as of late, that has not been the case. Students with parking permits have arrived at school to discover that all of the spots in the student parking lot are taken. This means, of course, that students who have not purchased parking permits are parked in the student parking lot. Consequently, some of the students who have been displaced have resorted to parking in empty handicapped spots or even in the teacher parking lot. This causes further problems, as the handicapped parking spots are not available for those who truly need them, while teachers are sometimes left with nowhere to park.

Recently, the administration has promised to strengthen the enforcement of the rule requiring that students without a parking permit do not park in the student parking lot. It is clearly stated on the parking permit that any cars parked in the student parking lot without a permit displayed are to be towed, but this rule has yet to be enforced. However, the administration has stated that beginning on March 16, vehicles parked in the student parking lot without a clearly displayed parking permit will be towed at the owner’s expense.

While stricter enforcement of the rules will help alleviate the parking problem at RM, it is only a short-term solution. RM’s Student Advocate is currently working on a policy paper introducing the idea of numbering student parking spaces and assigning students to particular spaces through a lottery system. This would allow the administration to accurately identify vehicles that are parked in spots that are not their own, and would allow them to rely on a master list of student parking spaces rather than the presence of a permit in a car window. In order to truly address the issue of parking in the student parking lot at RM, it is necessary to revamp the system and assign students to individual parking spots.