You wake up in the morning and engage in your daily routine. Rush to grab breakfast on the way out the door only to sit in traffic upon arriving at the gate, but when you reach the parking lot, something has changed. Students lately have been aggravated at the recent addition of a barrier which prevents them from cutting straight through to the senior parking lot. The real question is: Why is it there? Why the sudden change?

Normally, when someone might park in that dreaded spot and block off the pathway to the senior parking lot, it was every student’s biggest pet peeve. Now that the barrier has been put up, students are beginning to outwardly react.

The well known and loved security guard, Mike, says that of the three years that he has worked at Air Academy, there has never been a barrier in that spot. Officer Herman has more to say behind the reasoning of adding the barrier back into the parking lot: “It was originally designed to be that way, and there was congestion in the parking lot.” The barrier is supposedly in place to ensure that the mosh pit of cars that crowd the parking lot at the end of the day is under control. The craziness that always ensues beginning at 2:45 hasn’t seemed to improve because of the cement block though; on some days, it seems to have made the traffic worse. Some students attempt to cut through this empty space to avoid the rush of cars, but the second opening actually makes a noticeable difference in the steady flow of students leaving AAHS. The security guards may not monitor this afternoon activity closely enough to see this benefit.

Many students agree that the logic is flawed in forcing cars to drive an extra thirty feet in order to turn into the senior parking lot; finally, action is being taken. The students of Air Academy have struck back by either stealing the barrier or simply driving straight over it. Though no one knows exclusively who the culprits of this act are. Officer Herman adds: “The school has not done any investigation in order to find out who is behind it, though the consequences would be similar to any of those which might go along with tampering any of the school property.”

A fellow student, senior August Scott, comments: “The pandemic of moving parking barriers has been a non stop issue for Air Academy since ‘nam.” Though Scott claims that this parking lot problem has been here since the war in the 1960’s, this is a bit of an exaggeration as the issue only arose at the beginning of this fall 2015 semester.

Another senior, Lauren Petty, comments that she is worried about making the narrow turn in the parking lot. “With all of the snow lately, many people are concerned about drifting on the turn in the parking lot,” says Petty.

According to the school security guards, including Officer Herman, the barrier is not going anywhere anytime soon. Even though it may be a little trouble to drive an extra 3.4 seconds to the second turn, believe me it won’t make you any later for school. It’s just something that us Kadets have to get used to, and if it helps with traffic at the end of the day then who are we to argue? Or steal the barrier….or drive it out of the way….