Lauren VanAlfen

P. Gardner

Parking tickets

May 5, 2022

Time to Change Parking Tickets

Dear Brighton High Administration,

Everyone knows parking at the beginning of the year was nearly impossible. If

you were 2 minutes late there was no chance you would be able to find a spot. You

would drive around the parking lot in circles hoping to get lucky, but chances were not

very likely. Students had to get pretty creative with parking spots so they didn't have to

add a fifteen minute walk on their way to class. I feel like ticketing for parking at the

beginning of the year when there were more students than spots is a little much. Not

only were the tickets way too overpriced, they were given out to students who didn't

deserve one. In an interview with Michael Beisle, he mentioned that tickets were

overpriced but it is not the schools fault it is because of the district (Beisle, Michael).

Because of this, I started thinking about a way the school could help students out.

Instead of making them pay for tickets when circumstances were so hard, make them

do work around the school! In the article by The Center of Parenting Education, talks

about students doing chores helps them gain life skills for the rest of their lives. They

said, “Doing chores gives a child the opportunity to give back to people for all they do

for them. Kids begin to see themselves as important contributors to the people around

them and they feel a connection to others.” (Center for parenting education). Not only is
this helping students save money when it comes to tickets, but it is also helping them

actually gain and learn important skills for life. When a student just pays money they will

get nothing out of anything they are being disciplined for.

The goal of my action plan is to make it so students get more out of bad parking

and they get to save their money. Students are not loaded at this age and I think it is

important the school recognizes we cannot afford paying $50 tickets every week. I have

created three objective plans to reach this goal. First objective is to refund all tickets

given out before the parking was all the way finished. Second objective is to have the

school make a list of chores they need done around the school and have students do a

certain time around the school depending on how many tickets they have. Lastly the

third objective is to make students complete the chores and then their tickets are paid

for. This is helping the students and the school out in a lot of ways and actually benefits

the school.

My action plan is dependent on whether or not the school is willing to give up all

the money they have made from student tickets. In an interview with Hannah Larson,

she says she feels the school was enjoying ticketing so much because of the amount of

money they were making, (Larson, Hannah). In a survey for students about overpriced

parking tickets all of the students agreed that parking was so expensive because it gave

the school money, (VanAlfen Lauren). This shows me that we need to have the school

prove this is not the case and that they will take recommendations for other ways to

discipline for bad parking. This helps the school out and benefits the students in a lot of

ways.
 Works cited:

Beisle, Michael. Interview. 28 April, 2022.

Larson, Hannah. Interview. 29 April, 2022.

Lauren VanAlfen. Parking at Brighton survey. Salt lake city, UT, Brighton High School.

The center of parenting education. “The benefits of chores for kids.” 21 March 2021.