Driving down Georgetown Pike at 7:12 a.m. one day recently, junior Anne Frances Davis had a choice to make: either park legally far from school or take a risk trying to be on time and park in Langley’s parking lot. Ironically, deciding to be on time to school proved to be the wrong choice.

At 2:25 p.m., Davis headed out to her car to get her lacrosse practice clothes and her stick. Because the school’s locker room is always stuffed with lockers and athletes, most juniors and seniors use their cars as both a changing room and a locker. But where she parked her car that morning, there was nothing but asphalt. Her car had been towed during the day.

“It was awful,” said Davis. “It was such a hassle picking it up. It turned into a huge ordeal. My parents were so mad and they trust me with their car, so now they’re much more cautious about me driving to school.”

Most students are part of an after school activity. And yet, the administration purposefully sabotages the one security blanket that makes our lives easier as we race from activity to activity: our cars.

Ticketing cars is understandable; the students who were not lucky enough to have parking passes should be monetarily punished for disobeying the rules, but physically taking away cars is just going too far. A little empathy from security and administration could go a long way.

Students without parking passes must literally choose stress over more stress. Parking far away and having to reach their cars in the short time gap between school and practice, or having the threat that their cars could be taken away from them. If paying a ticket is a sacrifice they are willing to make, the administration should accept that.

After a $25 charge to Henry’s Wrecker Service off the bat, students are charged $25 for each additional hour they do not pick up their cars.

“Tickets are punishment enough,” says Junior Cara Brugal, who knows what it is like not to have a parking pass, though she was recently given one. “We should have to deal with the school not through Henry’s Wrecker Service or whatever that is. There are so many typical school punishments that could easily be linked to the parking lot rather than towing,” said Brugal.

If the administration truly wants students to be more involved in the school, they should abolish this policy.