Be careful where you park.

The safety staff have been cracking down on students without parking passes that are parking in the student lots.

This year, parking passes sold out in record time, leading to a lot of unauthorized parking due to students not having other places to park.

“We might number the parking spaces, so each student is assigned a space” said Director of Safety Matthew Driscoll. “This will cut down on unauthorized parking in spaces that have been purchased by students.”

With students parking in the illegally, the lots fill up quickly. It becomes a race to see who can get a spot before school.

“Sometimes when I come in the morning, there are no places to park in my lot,” said senior Emily Sommer. “Then I have to find a new spot which makes me late.”

For students without parking passes, finding legal parking outside the student lots is a challenge.

“Last year, when I didn’t have a pass, I was always late to class because I had to park on the street far away from the school,” said junior Nuala Brennan.

The consequences for illegally parking in the student lots can range from a city ticket of $25 to getting towed.

Safety officers patrol all of ETHS property, which includes the area surrounding the school, leaving students liable to receiving tickets wherever they park by school property.

With the completion of the reconstruction of the Lake St. tennis courts, new parking spaces will be made available. These new spots will be offered on a first come first serve basis via the school website for $200 per spot.

“When the spaces are made available in August, it is best to purchase immediately,” said Driscoll. “We make every effort to accommodate students needing spaces.”

No matter how much safety officers patrols these lots, there will still be unauthorized students parking in them.  This may simply be because they have nowhere else to park and believe the risk is worth the reward.