The current pickup method at JHS involves all grades being released at the same time and trying to exit the parking lot and correspondent route home simultaneously. With our growing student body, this makes it take longer to leave.
Johnson should use a waved pickup method instead.
The pickup method currently leaves some students with an hour’s ride home that could take 15 minutes under normal circumstances. This process can be stressful for both students and parents, who must navigate out of the lot and then sit in traffic for a significant amount of time. School can add enough stress to students’ days, and the added inconvenience of a long ride home is unnecessary.
The traffic issue is especially a hard hit to students who have extracurriculars outside of school. These students have an hour of the day lost that could be put towards doing what they love outside of school. If the waved pickup method is adopted, students will have more time to relax with their hobbies and work towards educational or personal goals instead of sitting in a car or bus in that same amount of time.
The waved pickup method could prevent traffic accidents. With many student drivers trying to leave the lot at the same time with more experienced and sometimes impatient parent drivers, traffic accidents can be inevitable. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, car crashes are the leading cause of teen death in Texas. But if the waved pickup method is used and there is resultantly less traffic on the road, these tragic accidents could be prevented.
It could be argued that a waved pickup method might take away from certain students’ class time in school who leave in an earlier or later wave, but it wouldn’t take an excessive donation of time to put into action. If the waves were even just around ten minutes, there would be significant improvement in the pickup experience. The time that is invested into the method could be paid back in the form of extra homework time when students get home. The major underlying issue of the traffic is our considerable student body, which causes traffic both on the road and in the halls. If only a quarter of the student body was released at the time, however, pickup would be substantially easier, and without taking too much time from in-class study. Some might be skeptical of using waves due to the possible conflict with the bus schedules, but that could be easily averted by organizing release of bus-riders into waves in accordance with their bus.
Another arguable disadvantage is that that students in the later waves might feel antsy and jealous when the earlier waves start to be released, but the pickup method could be organized in a way so that over time, everyone gets their turn to go first, whether that be letting freshmen out last and seniors first so students can work their way up over time, or having a rotating schedule throughout the year.
The waved pickup method is the best option to combat traffic issues. It allows students to have a less stressful pickup experience, to be given the opportunity of more extracurriculars, homework, and volunteer time outside of school, and lessen the possibility of a fatal car crash. Through the waved pickup method, students can have a better school experience and feel less pressure on the way back home.
