Hellgate High School has just started the 2025-2026 school year. Students are excited and anxious to get into the building first thing in the morning. Outside of the school there is a 20-30-foot-long curb painted white indicating it is okay to park there, but only for 20 minutes. The sign at the front of the curb reads, “pickup and drop off only- no parking.” For Hellgate students, there is no designated lot to park in that other students have the opportunity to use at Big Sky and Sentinel.
While parking is an issue for Hellgate students, teachers never have to worry, as the school has a designated lot for staff only. On Aug. 28, the first day of school, students arrived early to park on this ‘drop off’ strip to get front row parking and be on time to class. By lunch, all students had yellow ticket envelopes on their parked cars. Most students were angry about the tickets, and others were in complete shock, as the 20 minute parking hasn’t been enforced near,y as much as this last year.
The parking situation at Hellgate needs to be improved. The drop off zone would be a better fit on the other side of the street for anywho who desires to use it specifically for 20 minutes. Students continuing to get parking tickets because of a zone that isn’t always in use doesn’t make sense.
Students at Hellgate are busy with homework, college planning, and sports. When they are surprised with a 20-dollar-plus ticket, it takes away from the little money they have, and adds onto the stress they have too much of already.
Ella Lambert, a senior at Hellgate, parked in the drop off zone and had a warning ticket on her car.“I didn’t think I would get ticketed parking there, but I knew that last year they started ticketing people,” she said.
When running late to class students can no longer park on Connell Street due to construction, which leaves them with the wide open opportunity to park in the loading zone.
“We already have to park on the packed streets. Just give us a section where cars could actually fit,” Lambert said.
Hellgate students will be forced to pay money for tickets that are pointless to the school drop off zone forever until the sign is moved and it’s accepted to park there.
A solution to fix this problem would be to remove the drop off zone on Gerald Street and move the sign in front of the school bus loading zone on the other side of the street. Students get dropped off by family there more frequently than anyone has ever used the drop off pickup designated zone. Once the issue is fixed, the parking at Hellgate High School will be much more effective for rushed teenagers in the morning.
