The Concrete Terror of SRHS

Post date: February 3, 2025

By Grace Iovine

Finally, the bell rings; it's 2:12, and the school day has come to an end. After seven long hours of eight periods, you are free! You race to your car in the school parking lot and pull out, then bam! You're now stuck in 20 minutes of traffic, but this is not just your typical traffic; it's full of brand-new drivers getting too close to your car, people pulling out right in front of you left and right, and blaring horns (because people think it is peak comedy). You have to be on your game to survive this school parking lot.

For five days a week, most seniors and juniors who have their licenses and all park in the same lot dread the dismal time and the chaos it brings. Surviving each day getting to school and leaving is always a celebration when you are one of the hundreds parking here. Cooper Dempsey, a senior here at Southern, explained, “The school parking lot has enough spots with its size. You rarely hear of not having enough space for everyone to park. But there should be another exit; despite the two already there, another one would allow traffic flow to speed up.” He additionally discussed that Route 9, the road the school is on, also becomes a hazard because of how packed it gets since you have people of all kinds, not just student drivers.

Additionally, Aiden Donnelly, a senior at Southern, describes the parking lot as “Very hectic and needs another exit. Also, the illegal left should be allowed to prevent chaos in the lot.” Overall, both students have experienced this parking lot for two years and know the ins and outs and what to expect. This has been a problem for years, and no solutions (besides the additional gate exit) have been made. With hundreds of students in one lot getting out of school simultaneously, there must be more than two exits. If the school values and wants to protect its students as much as they say they do, maybe they should focus less on closing the bathrooms and instead improve this car chaos zone.