Administration gave students who parked in the main lot without permits the week of Jan 13. warnings that their car could be towed, despite the fact that parking by the baseball field at the back entrance was unavailable.

The snow total in Montgomery County was as high as 13 inches on Jan. 14, which left huge snow piles on the sides of the roads after being plowed. These snow piles covered up the baseball field parking spots, as well as a handful of spots in the main lot. The blocked spaces—along with the fact that parking in the surrounding neighborhood is permit only and strictly enforced—led students to resort to parking in the main lot without a pass.

“When I drove to school, I had no idea they weren’t going to plow the baseball field parking,” junior Zach Zeldow said. “Where else was I supposed to park?”

The county owns the road past the baseball field, and they don’t recognize the spots on the side of the road as parking spots. Plows have to put the snow somewhere, and that is the only place they can push it, according to a school administrator.

Due to the number of students in the parking lot without parking passes, those with parking passes ran out of spots. Some students resorted to parking in the staff section.

“When I showed up at school, almost all the parking spots were full,” senior Danny Ghauri said. “I know many of my friends that had parking passes that had to park in staff parking.”

Complaints from staff and students with parking passes were brought to the attention of security team leader Cherisse Milliner.

“I give warnings [to cars] when my staff do not have parking when they come to work, and when students who pay for parking permits don’t get parking,” Milliner said.

Once students receive one warning, they can get towed if they are parked in the lot again, which can result in $250 in impound fees. A number of students were towed over the course of the week.

“I ended up getting towed later as a result of a warning I received due to the baseball field parking being unavailable,” junior Riya Kumar said.

Students expressed frustration with the lack of parking on the baseball field, followed up by warnings in the main lot.

“If the parking by the baseball field was plowed, there wouldn’t have been any problem,” junior Sean Fleming said. “Receiving a warning when there was nowhere else to park was annoying.”

Montgomery County provides buses for all students in the county, and that’s what students should do in situations like this, Milliner said.