Jessica rushes out the door, hops in her car and sees that the clock reads 6:45 a.m. She knows she is running late so she steps on the gas in hopes of getting a parking spot at school. Junior Jessica Camilli is one of the many student drivers that is constantly stressing and struggling over parking for school.

Many students who did not purchase a parking spot park either at Ossian Park or First Presbyterian Church. Ossian Park only has approximately fifteen parking spots, however, so this option is only available to a small amount of people. At the church cars park around the outside perimeter but are prohibited to park in the church parking lot. As the year rolls on and more students are receiving their drivers licenses the parking at Annandale fills up earlier.

“I understand that people get their licenses at different times but it’s really annoying when I lose a parking spot to someone who just started driving. I know that church parking is fair game but it’s still frustrating,” says Camilli.

Annoyances also arise when potential parking spots are completely wasted.

“Certain people at the church leave a huge gap between their car and the car in front of them. The gap is generally too small for anyone to parallel in so they waste a ton of room. I don’t understand why it’s so hard for them to pull forward to open up an extra spot,” says senior Omid Shabon.

Later in the year many people are left without a spot and have to resort to parking illegally.

“When I’m late I’m lucky enough to have a friend that lives right by the school so she gives me a parking pass and lets me park at her house. I know that other people are not so lucky however and risk getting a ticket by parking illegally on the street or at Heritage Shopping Center,” Camilli said.

Around the church there are multiple no parking signs. Students cannot park outside of these signs or they risk the chance of receiving a ticket. Tickets are rarely given out but when they are it is for a high price.

“The back end of my car was past the sign and I received a $50 fine. I don’t understand the point of that and think it’s ridiculous that I basically got fined for going to school,” says junior Andrew Pack.

Many people believe that because the church is not in use during the week that their parking lot should be available to students. This would open up approximately 110 more spots to students, which would basically eliminate the schools parking problem.

“I think spots at the church should be rented out to students because the lot is completely empty during the school day. I don’t understand why the church has such a problem with people parking there when it isn’t even in use during the day. It’s a complete waste of a parking lot if it only gets used on Sundays,” says Shabon.

As the parking problem continues to grow as the year goes on so will student frustrations. AHS needs to figure out a solution to the problem so that people are not forced to be in such a rush in the morning and do not have to risk illegal parking.