Carlos Chancay

Entering this school year, many staff and students at the Regional were shocked by the number of accidents that have taken place in the Regionals parking lot. Senior Ryann Lebetkin mentioned how there were three minor accidents on the first day of school alone. This has caused students to wonder about possible changes that could be made to help.
Principal Michael Pratt gave data about the spots and students at Wachusett. “The senior class contains 477 students and we have given out 350 spots,” said Pratt.
Pratt also said how much of a congested area the parking lot has become and with a combination of speeding, lack of patience, buses, and parents the parking lot can get chaotic.
“I think the accidents come from students being inexperienced and some people still don’t know the way or rules of the road,” said senior Kendall Grady.
Senior Caroline Mahoney suggested there should be a parking test put in place to be able to have a spot at the Regional.
“When the school was designed it was not done so with the ability to handle parking for both the junior and senior class. It would be great if we had more exits, so that students would not have to feel rushed to get out to beat the buses, but we don’t have that ability, ” said Pratt.
“A lot of seniors want to get home as early as possible and beat the buses. With that comes students rushing and not paying attention to surroundings,” said junior Lilli Mitchell.
Students feel pressured to run to their cars and back out as quickly as possible.
Many upperclassmen believe that speeding and rushing in and out of the parking lot is a major cause of the accidents in the parking lot, but as for the underclassmen that got interviewed, they believe some students don’t even have the ability to go fast because it’s such a confined area.
“It’s silly how many people get in crashes, if they can’t go fast anyways,” said sophomore Ava Laroche.
Although efforts to help with students exiting onto the main road have already been made, there’s no pleasing everyone.
“It is a double edged sword. If the SRO is there we get town complaints and when he isn’t there we get student complaints. There is no perfect system,” said Principal Pratt.