by Katie Forbes
After the parking policy at Woodbridge High School was altered to stipulate that students parking illegally may be towed if caught, intrepid students began forging their own passes, which has caused a parking scandal across the high school campus.
The parking policy at WHS dictates that only seniors can park on campus after purchasing a pass for $10. Seniors who fail to do so, and juniors who drive, are expected to park off campus and walk down the hill to and from school.
Juniors find it absurd that they are expected to make this grueling three minute walk not once, but twice a day. Doing so has been known to cause the decay of sneakers, lates to homeroom, and overly-sculpted calf muscles.
“Walking up and down the hill everyday leads to such terrible things,” said the junior heading the new parking pass business, who spoke under condition of anonymity in fear of being expelled. “I don’t understand how the administration still finds it acceptable to not allow us to park on campus. It’s like they’re ignoring our civil rights.”
Enter the dark underground of forging parking passes. Literally. Their business is run in the old tunnels underneath Woodbridge High School, where they work for hours each day making the artisan passes by hand.
“The wages are terrible and the working conditions are even worse, but I feel like I have no choice but to fight for my class,” a dedicated worker said. The students started off small, just making passes for juniors with licenses, but once word got out, the demand grew. They’re now making passes for juniors at Colonia, JFK, and Bishop Ahr, in addition to WHS.
“Even some seniors have started buying our passes over Mr. Switek’s. He sells them for $10, an insane amount just to park on campus, which is all of our equal right. We sell our passes for $8.75 and our customers appreciate that,” said the co-founder of the business, who also spoke under condition of anonymity.
The juniors are impacting students all over Woodbridge Township and their passes are so authentic looking that they may never be caught (see side by side comparison).
The students plan on continuing this business and eventually taking over Mr. Switek’s duty completely. When asked about the subject, Mr. Switek had no comment. To support these juniors, and juniors all over the world, visit www.endthewalkdownthehill.com.
