High school charges students to park in lot
Published: October 8, 2009
Updated: October 8, 2009
WARWICK, R.I.—A Rhode Island high school is charging students $5 a year to park in the school parking lot.
Officials at Toll Gate High School in Warwick say the policy is intended to reduce car break-ins and make the campus safer. It’s also intended to discourage tardiness since juniors and seniors who are repeatedly late to class would lose their right to park in the school lot.
The policy, which would require students to register their cars and mark them with a sticker, is being reviewed by the superintendent and school committee. The school started collecting the fee on Wednesday.
School Committee chairman Chrisopher Friel tells The Providence Journal that the idea seems well-intentioned, but he says it’s unclear if the fee would need to be approved by the committee.
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Reader Reactions
I cannot believe so many inane responses here. Most high schools charge for a sticker for their car and the money goes into a student activity fund to help pay for field trips for needy students, pizza for post prom parties, etc etc.
Why the need for a sticker????
someone sees suspicious activity around a car…..track the sticker number and voila there is the student to speak to
parking is, indeed not a right…it is a privilege…..your grades go down? pull the right to park….
someone observes a flat tire? track the sticker number…the police do not like to trace plates all the time
these are just three of many other reasons….
we are talking about 5…count em…five one dollar bills…golleeey!
I do not see anything wrong with students having to pay for a parking spot. They should and if they don’t then they have the option of taking a school bus, walking, or getting a ride from someone else. My issue is that schools shouldn’t say that they are doing it to stop students from being late or skipping school or to prevent cars from being broken into. You do not need a car or a parking spot to do those things, plenty of high school students do those things regardless. If they just want the students money for whatever reason then they should come out and say so instead making it sound like they are preventing students from doing things they shouldn’t be doing. Besides, there are far more effective ways of stopping these kids from playing hookie. For example, contact their parents, give them detentions to make up for the time they miss in school, or ban them from going to special school events such as dances. But of course it’s probably much easier to do nothing and say you are doing something, while making a profit at the same time, as opposed to start enforcing the rules that should have been enforced all along.
You want to talk entitled? Let me tell you a little bit about my entitled life. First of all, I worked hard and managed to get myself a $15,000 a year scholarship for college, put in my 4 years, graduated magna cum laude, having double majored. I still left college with over $30,000 worth of student loans. I went out with my fantastic letters of recommendation, my 3.8 gpa and my RI teaching certificate…and couldn’t even get a job. In 2 years the best I could get was 6 months of a long term sub position. The rest of the time I worked as a regular subsitute—which, if you’ve never been a substitute teacher, you should totally try it, there’s nothing like that call that comes in at 5am to tell you where to report for the day, trying to teach material you haven’t seen before to kids who you’ve never met and want nothing more than to make your life miserable. When I realized that there were no teaching jobs in RI (and this was pre-economic meltdown), I moved to MA and shelled out hundreds of dollars to take the tests so I could shell out more money to get my MA certificate. I finally got a job in MA 3 years after graduating from college. I am eternally grateful to work in a wonderful school, and do feel like I contribute well to society by helping the students I work with find what they’re good at, and support them in working on things that they’re not (I’m a special needs teacher). But I don’t even take home 4 figures in my paycheck that I get every 2 weeks. I surely didn’t get a raise this year, and my health insurance contribution more than doubled. Did I also mention that within the next 2 years I have to get my master’s degree in order to keep my certificate? My husband is also a teacher who worked in RI for 3 years, got a layoff notice every year and was not called back after the 3rd year…he now works in MA also and, guess what, gets a layoff notice every year there too, but luckily has gotten called back each time. We just scraped together the money to buy a house, I drive a 10-year-old car with 150K miles on it, and would really like to start a family sometime before I’m 30. Every day, I get to work at 730am and stay for at least an hour and a half after the kids leave at 3, or at least put in that time working at home. Did I also mention that I spend plenty of that money I earn on supplies for my own classroom?
So, Ivan, does that sound like the “entitled” life that you speak of? Really, if your life is so terrible that you consider my modest living as entitled, I feel very sorry for you.
Ivan09 you my friend should win comment of the year for that post 
I think this is a great idea. My tax dollars go to pay for the buses these kids won’t use. I say charge by the month and use the money for activities the budget won’t cover. And if they are late, charge a late fee by the minute. There is no reason for them to be late when they provide their own transportation.
I love how a teacher is talking about students having an entitled attitude. That’s funny coming from a public school teacher. I’ve never seen a bigger group of cry babies with more entitled attitudes than unionized public teachers.
I have no problem with this. Why shouldn’t they pay for a spot? It’s a privilege to park on school grounds. I’m actually happy to see a high school crack down and not allow the students to act like they own it. I think they should lose their parking privileges after only a few tardies. I teach in a middle school and I already see in students an “entitled” attitude. This is just one little, tiny way to let them know that nothing in life is free or without strings.
Also, many school districts now are charging kids to participate in extracurricular activities, requiring them to buy student agenda books, etc. I don’t see how this is any different. You pay to park in a public garage or by a meter on the street. Colleges charge for parking passes. Asking these kids, the same kids who come to school with the $75 Hollister sweatshirts and $100 ed hardy jeans, to pay a stinking $5 fee to park on campus for an entire year is not exactly going to make a giant impact on their lives.
I certainly agree with cad1975 that the money should go into a student activity account of some sort.
I just want to know where the money goes? To the school and activities or to the Town?
Ponaganset High School does the same thing. The money should be put into an account for the student to help pay for things like trips, pictures or other school related activities.
When I went to No. Kingstown High School they made us pay $15 for the sticker and we had to have it on our cars otherwise they would get towed. It didn’t deter myself or anyone else from skipping school, coming in late, leaving school early, or from even breaking into other cars. I see no reason for them to charge students to park in the parking lot other than to make money off of the students. And if that’s the reason then they need to come out and say so instead of coming up with ridiculous reasons.
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