The Ups and Downs of Getting to School

The wheels on the bus go round and round… unless you drive to school, are driven to school, walk to school or bike to school. 

The way you get to and from school affects everything, the time you get to school, if you can stay after school for a club or sport, even the time you wake up in the morning. 

At South, there are many different forms of transportation that students have to choose between. It might seem like an easy decision, but there are pros and cons to every option. 

Faith Hecht, freshman,  is driven to school every day by her sister Gracie. Hecht said her favorite part of being driven to school is being able to stop at places on the way to school.

 “My sister and I stop at QuikTrip every Wednesday morning on our way to school,” Hecht said. 

Hecht parks in the athletic parking lot because it is more efficient for her when she needs to stop by the locker room. 

“ My sister and I are both in Cheer and Cross Country, so we always need to drop off things in our gym lockers,” said Hecht. 

At the beginning of October, a new location for the car rider drop off line was put into place. This new location is right next to the Athletic parking lot. 

Hecht said that this new location has more than doubled the number of people around the athletic parking lot, sometimes they wait in line as long as five minutes to just pull into the lot. 

“The parents just get in the way,” said Hecht. 

Kimberly Lepe, a car rider, also has complaints about the new drop off line location. Lepe said she really likes being driven to school, though.

“I get to spend time with my mama,” she said.

 Though she likes being driven, Lepe said she has been very frustrated recently because of the new drop off line location. 

At the beginning of October, Lepe broke a bone in her foot, making it more difficult for her to walk.

“Because of my boot I can not walk very fast and it is starting to get cold, so I am going to feese my butt off walking so far,” Lepe said. 

This has become such a big deal to Lepe and other student at South because the drop off line used to be on the opposite side of the school by the academic parking lot where the majority of the classrooms are, but now because of the new location many students like Lepe have to walk all the way across the building to get to class. 

But not all students are upset about the changes of drop off location. 

Campbell Woodbury and Vivian Hamilton both ride the bus to school. They agree that in contrast to other students beliefs they are both happy about the change in location for the car riders because it makes more space for the busses. 

“It’s very helpful. I have a much easier time finding my bus at the end of the day,” Woodbury said.

But they still have complaints about riding the bus. 

Woodbury said she likes to ride the bus because she always has enough time to do any preparations for class before the school day starts. 

“[The bus] gets me to school much earlier than my parents would,” Woodbury said. 

But she does admit that sometimes riding the bus can be a little boring because her bus ride is 20 minutes long. 

“I cant really complain though, a lot of people have much longer rides,” Woodbury said. 

Hamilton is one example of a student who has a longer ride that Woodbury; she is on the bus for about 40 minutes to school both ways. 

“I like riding the bus because I get to hang out with friends, but I wish I got home a little faster,” Hamilton said. 

At South, there are many different ways of transportation that every day students have to choose between. It might seem like an easy decision but there are pros and cons to every option.