Sarah Hendrickson

Students wait in line, eager to get home and leave school grounds.

Getting your license is something that every student looks forward to in their life. The idea that you no longer have to wake up early to take the bus or ask your parents to take you everywhere is new and exciting. Ever since they were little, teenagers have thought about the day they can get their license. As exciting as getting your license is, it also comes with a lot of responsibility. 

Every morning before school, and every afternoon after school, students at Hollis Brookline High School (HBHS) are in a rush to be somewhere. This could be because they were late for school due to the long and painful traffic every morning, or maybe their alarm went off but didn’t wake them up. Since they are in a hurry to get to class on time, their minds tend to wander and they don’t pay attention to their surroundings as much as they should. 

“There have been instances, either I was in a car or not in a car, and I just felt like people were going very fast. My friend and I were almost hit by a car because someone wasn’t paying attention,” said HBHS student Caitlyn Brien ‘26. 

Even though there are only a select few who speed in the parking lot, it only takes one person and one time to cause an accident. Many factors impact students’ driving, including phones, anxiety about being late and the urgency to get out of the parking lot as soon as possible. We all fall victim to these reasons from time to time. However, one thing that is important to know is that you may not think your speeding is bad until it affects the safety of your peers and the people around you. 

Despite the school’s best efforts in reducing student speeding, it has come to the students of HBHS attention that the precautions don’t have that much of an impact. “The speed bump doesn’t really slow anyone down,” said student Caroline Crawford ‘26. 

However, even though speeding in the parking lot has gotten out of hand, is it really the main problem in students driving? Vice Principal and Parking Lot Monitor Amanda Zeller commented on accidents occurring in the parking lot. “So it wasn’t directly because they were driving too fast, it’s because they were rushing and didn’t look at their surroundings,” she said. So even though speeding is a pressing matter in this case, it also needs to be noted that students not being aware of their surroundings because they are in a rush is also a big factor. 

Especially after a long and exhausting day of sitting in a chair for almost 7 straight hours, students get antsy and eager to leave school and get home. In return, they are not as aware of their surroundings as they should be. “At the end of the day, everyone’s racing out there. Everyone’s going every way to get out because everyone wants to get out as fast as they can. This is because everyone has work or extracurriculars,” said Brien. Students understand the need to get out of the parking lot as soon as possible, especially to beat the traffic, but it’s important to note the traffic won’t go by faster just because you are rushing to leave.

Zeller gave a piece of advice on this issue. “Just slow down a little bit, I know it’s aggravating to wait in lines and have to wait to get out in the afternoon, but we all got to stay safe,” she said.