Regulating Traffic
As a new school year has started up, juniors and seniors in particular have begun filling the parking lots and utilizing the open-campus policy to come and go as they please. To combat the overload of cars and traffic in the parking lot, the New Canaan High School administration has begun to hone in on implementing safety measures and consequences for reckless driving in the parking lot.
Before the school year begins, students are asked to purchase a parking sticker so that they can demonstrate that they have been given access to park at the high school. In the last week or two, campus monitors have started requiring students to stop at the exit booth and scan their student ID to prove they have been granted off-campus permission. While this naturally creates a line of cars waiting to leave grounds, the administration has felt this is a necessary measure to ensure the only students leaving are those whose parents have allowed them to.
With regards to reckless driving, the NCHS administration has begun revoking off-campus privileges for students who have been caught driving unsafely in the parking lot. This entails not being able to leave campus unless it is the end of the day. While this is a beneficial step towards more aware drivers in the high school community, we can do more. Ensuring that the campus monitors are regulating traffic every single day at the beginning and end of the school day would prevent cars cutting others off just to get ahead of the line.
We recognize that the traffic at the Farm Road intersection is fairly unpreventable, which does have some impact on NCHS traffic because one flows into the next. However, we need to utilize the resources and people we have at school in order to create a more organized system of shuffling cars into and out of the parking lot.
Student Voices
It is essential that students at New Canaan High School understand that their voice matters, and when they speak up about something that matters to them, it incites change. Take two NCHS seniors: Ellerie Tauber and Praja Tickoo. Praja Tickoo has future plans to go into the educational field, but he wanted to take action now. So, he spoke up, and now he is a member of the Connecticut State Board of Education for one year. He will now be able to make changes that will impact communities beyond the NCHS one.
As for Ellerie Tauber, she saw an opportunity for improvement with the quiet study section in the library, and so she wrote a letter to the librarians asking for the study carols to be near the doors for more sunlight… and now they are.
In the New Canaan High School community, students have the privilege of speaking up when they feel strongly about an area where the school can be improved. If you have an idea, it is absolutely worth sharing with others.
