The Optimist

Ian Hicks

Staff Writer

Change has been extensive in the South parking lot in only the first few weeks of the school year. It has been caused by rising concern has due to both accidents, and potential hazards from bus routes. On the first day of school, students were surprised to see freshly paved speed bumps obstructing their driving. But the changes did not stop just there.

In another alteration to after school travel plans, teachers were put in a lottery for after school bus duty. Teacher Dan Combs, social studies, received the award of bus duty for the first three days of school. Combs, who in a former career worked for Highway Traffic Safety, described his first day, as “Chaos that I was told was order.” His biggest fear was the way he saw students take off across the street without bothering to look. “The downside in having been in Highway Traffic Safety is that all I could see was potential accidents,” Combs said. “One lapse in judgment and a kid’s under a bus.”
Combs was not alone in being concerned about parking lot danger. All of South’s administration has been active in improving parking lot safety. Assistant Principal Jay True cited the death of one student as well as another student who was hit and injured by a car at a bus stop in Indianapolis last year as the cause for increased alert. “With 1650 students leaving South at once, the buses need a good system,” said True.

To create this “good system” several new measures have been put in place. On the suggestion of Combs, among other teachers, crosswalks have been put in by the buses, as well as cones, which block cars from driving in the same area that buses drive and kids walk.

In addition to measures put in place by the school, police have been setting up around North Drive as well as Henderson Street to watch, and see if any further measures need to be done.

While problems with buses may be slowly getting resolved, incidents with student drivers and parking are as bad as they have ever been. If anybody knows about problems in the parking lot, it is senior Charlie McClary, who had his car hit two times in two days. A student hit McClary’s car while it was parked, before school was out for the afternoon. McClary was able to see tapes of the wreck taken from security cameras. “He got out of the car and looked around. He said he didn’t see any damage, so he left,” McClary said. The next day another car backed up and hit McClary’s car again. Luckily for him, he knew this student personally, and the student didn’t drive off.

While the damage to McClary’s car was minor, it speaks to the type of trouble that can happen at South, especially with parking. McClary blamed the parking situation for the pair of accidents. “Parking is awful. There are a million people trying to get around at once. I am actually able to park up front, but I don’t, just because of how hard it is,” McClary said.