Detentions for FVHS Bikers Due to Lack of Parking

Lately, members of supervision staff have been hanging around the bike gates near Room 305, Mrs. Henderson’s room, for some unknown reason. I discovered today that a few of the bikes were labeled with green slips, which were detentions issued for “improperly parking” their bikes. As I gazed upon the few bike racks crowded and filled with bikes, I thought to myself, “Is this a joke? They can’t even fit their bikes into the racks anymore…There’s no more room.”

It isn’t fair for students to receive detentions due to the lack of bike parking because when there is a lack of parking, students have to improvise. I walked around the lot and observed every bike that had a green slip. They were all locked and standing upright to a fence, rack, or pipe. Although locking their bike to a pipe IS unsafe for the school, it lowers the risk of any students having their bikes stolen.

There just aren’t enough bike racks to properly park all of these valuable bikes.

Plus, another issue of this problem is the way supervision sent out the detentions. The green slips, which were taped to the bikes, stated a warning and asked the student bikers to go to office for a detention. One problem, supervision: any student could simply rip the paper off and go riding back home. Supervision labeled each bike that was “improperly parked” a detention, but they don’t know to whom it belongs to, or their student identification number. It seems like a poor way of punishing the students, unless the student was truly honest enough to go to the office after school to serve or complain about the detention.

At least supervision didn’t take their bikes away. Of course, that would be too much of a hassle. It’s not like we use our bikes in class. Seriously? Detentions for improperly parking bikes? If you want to stop the students from parking outside the bike racks or have the students get their bikes ruined or caught between other bikes, try to fund at least one or two more bike racks for the students. The Homecoming Dance is coming up and all that revenue raised from selling tickets could go to good use. It’s the least the administration can do.