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SOUTH JORDAN — Some seniors at Bingham High School in South Jordan say a new parking policy for students is preventing them from finding open stalls. They say it creates dangerous driving conditions and is making them very late for class.
That's why seniors Sophie Curtis and Eleanor Wooley started a petition on Change.org, hoping to change the school's new policy. In just a few days, the petition gathered over 900 signatures and dozens of comments.
"I've drove around for about 45 minutes some days to finding a parking spot," Wooley said. "They don't have enough for everyone and I think they gave out too many passes."
"It's been a major problem for the first two weeks of school already," Curtis said.
The girls believe the problem is because of the policy implemented this year that allows all juniors to get a parking pass rather than only those selected in a lottery, like in previous years.
"Seniors have a very loose schedule. So many seniors don't have a first period or a last period or they have work release," Wooley said.
"I think the problem is definitely that they gave out too many parking passes," said high school senior Luke Cantwell, who signed the petition.
Assistant principal Art Erickson said the school community council voted in favor of allowing all juniors the option to purchase passes this year. Plus he said a school survey last school year showed more than 70% of students in favor of it.
"So we moved forward on that action with the support of the community council," Erickson said.
He said the school currently has 700 parking stalls, and 1,013 parking passes have been purchased by seniors and juniors. But about 70, or 10%, of the parking stalls are taken up by construction. The school is hoping that construction will be wrapped up in another month.
Erickson said the school has sold only 29 more parking passes this year than last year.
"The parking lot here at Bingham has been a concern for many years," he said. But he said school leaders plan to listen to the students. "We are grateful for the input and if there are things we've overlooked or things that need to be adjusted, we are certainly open to that."
