In downtown Colorado Springs, at Palmer High School, at 7:00 in the morning from Monday to Friday lots of cars with very little space can cause a bit of traffic. Parents dropping off kids would either feel frustrated or rushed when they try to have their students on time in class. Palmer is currently under construction to expand the school for a brighter future towards the new generation of learning. Some roads are closed so it’s harder for students to park or parents to drive and drop their kids off, leading to long lines at traffic lights. Something should be done to help the school traffic in the mornings in order to prevent students from being tardied.
Parents, students, and teachers all have their own points of view about the traffic whether they experience it firsthand or just observe. An economics teacher, Todd Nelson, would like to share his thoughts about the traffic in the mornings.
At the beginning of the year at palmer high school, there was a lot for everyone to adjust to due to the construction that involves some changes to the school. Traffic can lead to a lot of students going to the doors at the front nine, causing lines at the doors to get pouches scanned. Those lines can lead to stressful jobs for the security officers.
“I haven’t been as directly involved in the traffic as far as my parking. I know at the start of the year, there was a logjam of students getting into school scanning their pouches. It seems like that has gotten better over time. It’s tricky, because sometimes it is conceivable to use the “logjam” as an excuse when there is an opportunity to be on time. I do think it’s hard on security guards because so much of their interaction is unpleasant,” he says.
A month and a half into the beginning of the school year the school decided to give students lunch detentions for a certain number of tardies they have had each week. Some kids get tardies in their first class due to the traffic, so they would have to face an unfair consequence that wasn’t their fault. Students really don’t like that rule as it is, so how would the teachers feel about that rule.
“Lunch detention could be an unfair punishment, and we could have the unintended consequence of kids just ditching so they are not late and in trouble.”
Students are sometimes not on the happy side when they know they have a tardy, especially not with the rules now at school. Some kids are either nice or very rude to a teacher because they don’t want to be marked tardy. Different teachers have their own experience with students about it.
“If I focus too much on tardies or those kinds of things, I get grumpy, but my students are generally polite…with some classes I’ve had in the past, there can be some rudeness along with tardies.”
Annabelle Lara, a sophomore high school student at Palmer High School, gets rides to school in the morning from a parent. She has not only seen but she has been in the morning traffic in front of the school. As a student, her point of view is different than a teacher’s.
When students get dropped off at school, they have their own way to get to the school. With different roads they are on, they see different kinds of traffic leading towards the school. Some traffic is bad, so the line doesn’t budge for a good few minutes or even cars move a little, but it takes a bit to even get to the front of the school.
“In the morning right before class I would say the traffic around the front nine is very bad and sometimes to the point where you physically can’t be dropped off at the front nine cause your car won’t even be able to get up there sometimes and if so it takes a bit to make your way up,” she says.
In front of the school there are barely any parking spots for cars to drive to the side and park to drop off their students. A lot of accidents occur when people don’t turn on their blinkers and just merge into a lane making other cars slam on their brakes.
“I have witnessed an accident almost happening at the front nine due to the traffic and impatient people trying to drop their kids off quickly and almost getting hit by another car trying to get out of the parking spot.”
Palmer High School has something they do every week about if kids have a certain amount of tardies they get lunch detention. Some students do come in late, but some kids get tardies in their first class due to traffic in the mornings.
“I do think it’s a bit unreasonable for kids to get lunch detention due to being late in the morning because of the bad traffic that they can’t control but it is also depending on what time they get there and how.”
Lukkah Dawson drives to palmer high school a few mornings each week to drop off her best friend who attends palmer high school. Ever since school started she has witnessed the traffic that has been going on in front of the high school.
Parents and drivers all have their own points of view, especially regarding traffic. Traffic can be so frustrating, exhausting, it even makes some people scared of how others drive or act on the road. Knowing people’s ratings about how bad traffic is helps especially from drivers who have had many experiences on the road with other sorts of traffic from other places.
Some parents/drivers know what it feels like to be in a rush, and others know the little bit of rage they feel when people just merge into their lane, and they have to stomp on the brakes. Even when cars just stop in the middle of the road, it is unexpecting towards cars behind them. That all leads to an accident later because someone wouldn’t be able to hit their brakes in time after they crossed a green light or kept driving forward slow getting distracted by trying to find a place to pull off to the side for their student to go into the school.
“Yes, I have seen a few cars nearly get in a car accident bc they didn’t turn their blinker on, or they just stopped in the middle of the road to let their student get out or pick them up.”
When parents worry or wonder about how situations affect their students, many think about what the school would do to adjust and help the students better. With the school being under construction some people don’t even know what the school could do to improve the traffic situation.
“I think first they should give them longer than 10 minutes (or however long they have already) after class starts before being marked tardy or absent, maybe talk to someone about cars just passing through taking different routes and only people picking up or dropping of kids go threw there in the morning and afternoon, I don’t know if that one is realistic though. But there needs to be some kind of organization on the roads in the morning and afternoons.”