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FRANKLIN, Ind. (AP) — Even after local high school students get their license and a set of car keys, they still have a few more conditions they must meet to drive themselves to and from school each day.
Students at five of Johnson County's high schools have to pay to park their vehicles in school lots, and parking permits cost up to $50.
Typically, that money pays for random drug tests, which all students must agree to if they want to drive to school.
This school year, 1,430 students from Johnson County's six high schools agreed to those terms and received parking passes.
Allowing students to drive gives principals and administrators something else they must monitor throughout the day, as they watch for unsafe drivers and students who try to drive to school without paying for a parking permit.
Students who consistently drive dangerously or come to school without a parking permit can lose their school driving privileges or receive detentions or suspensions. At Franklin Community High School, for example, typically 20 to 30 students are warned about their driving each year, and 10 students lose their parking pass or receive detentions or suspensions, Assistant Principal Scott Martin told the Daily Journal (http://bit.ly/1vpAbeJ ).
But students who drive typically obey the rules because they can't or don't want to take the bus, school officials said.
"Kids, when they hit 16, they love to drive," Indian Creek High School Principal Scott Shimer said. "And they understand if they don't have any infractions, they can continue to drive."
Local students who drive to school often need to get to work or are a part of sports or clubs and need to get to places throughout the day that don't have bus stops, principals said.
Franklin seniors Bridgette and Breonna Ramsey, who are twins, need their cars to get from school to internships, track practice and work each day. So they had no problem paying $15 a piece and agreeing to submit to random drug tests.
Driving to school also means students have to learn how to share the parking lot with hundreds of classmates, some of whom are eager to leave school at the end of each day.
When the dismissal bell rings at Franklin, the Ramseys wait about 10 minutes for the parking lot to empty. They've seen how some of their classmates drive, and they don't want to risk getting into a fender bender on their way out of the parking lot.
"You have to be paying attention, or there are plenty of accidents," Breonna Ramsey said.
After students arrive and before they leave, principals patrol the parking lots so they can be sure no students are driving who haven't paid for a permit. At Whiteland Community High School, students who drive to school without the passes are warned that they either need to buy a pass or take the bus, Principal Tom Zobel said.
If students continue to drive without a parking pass, they can be suspended. So far this school year, no Whiteland student has been disciplined for driving without a pass, Zobel said.
At Franklin Community High School, there's usually enough time to patrol the lots only once or twice a semester, Martin said. Principals and teachers also watch for speeding and dangerous drivers entering and leaving school parking lots.
If a student is observed driving too fast or dangerously, a staff member will stop them and tell them to slow down. If it happens again or if a student is doing something that could seriously harm a person or vehicle — doughnuts in the parking lot, for example — then the student can lose the parking pass, Martin said.
Principals also use driving as an incentive to students who are regularly late to class or repeatedly get suspended.
Under Indiana law, schools can request that the Bureau of Motor Vehicles deny young drivers a permit or license until they're 18 if they are truant or regularly suspended. That can give students missing school or getting into trouble an incentive to behave because they don't want to lose the privilege to drive, Shimer said.
"That's a nice carrot we have that they allow us to shake in front of students (who) have behavioral issues," Shimer said.
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Information from: Daily Journal, http://www.dailyjournal.net
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