CHS seniors participate in many traditions such as Senior Sunrise, the senior Disneyland trip and the senior breakfast. However, CHS does not partake in painting senior parking spots, which have been a trend at many schools for the past few years.
Siena LeSueur is a senior in ASB at CHS who expresses an interest in this activity. Yet, her class wasn’t able to participate due to a lack of information about arranging this type of event.
“I feel like it would be such a fun activity for seniors to become closer,” LeSueur said. “I honestly don´t know why we don´t do it because we have so many traditions at Carlsbad.”
Principal Julie Redfield explains that it is all up to student interest. Students have to express their interest to ASB and they will plan the activity. The activity would take place on a Saturday and would be supervised by Señor Ricitelli, the ASB director, to make sure that everything goes smoothly.
“If it’s something that kids want to do,” Redfield said. “We would have to just make sure we have enough participation. We have the supplies, we have the supervision, and then clear expectations of what we are allowed to have in their parking spot and what we would not be. So, of course, school appropriate designs.”
By painting things that represent them such as hobbies, sports or their name, students are able to express themselves through their art. Allowing students to personalize a parking spot could potentially enhance the parking experience by making each space better suited to individual seniors’ preferences.
“I think kids would be scared to steal senior parking spots because they would know exactly whose it was,” LeSueur said.
While seniors already gain advantages in sports and spots in the Loud Crowd at football games, painting senior parking spots would give them another way to create special memories as it being their last year of high school.
“It’s the seniors’ last year and I think it would be fun to have something different from the rest of our school,” LeSueur said.
Due to permanent paint being too expensive to maintain and difficult to remove from the asphalt, chalk is an alternative that can be removed easily and still allow students to express creativity through their art.
“We actually would use chalk because if we used permanent paint, every summer we would have to then slurry seal,” Redfield said.
As a senior, LeSueur regrets not taking the action to make this activity happen this year. Many students including LeSueur are not aware that students are actually the ones who have to take the first step to gather students.
“I feel like if [juniors] tried this year all year long, [they] could have it by next year,” LeSueur said. “It’s too late for me though.”
