It is no secret that the Cal High parking lot is a death trap overflowing with reckless and inexperienced drivers.

Lazy, sleep deprived zombies race into the lot in order to not be late to school.

The students, barely awake, drive aimlessly into the lot dreading the day ahead of them.

Tests that have not been studied for or half-finished assignments linger in students’ minds.

The sight of the back parking lot in the morning sucks the life out of students and causes them grief on their drive to and from school.

Hundreds of hormonal teenagers rushing to and from school through a single exit and entrance is a recipe for disaster.

Students are selfish in their haste. More times than not, students do not wait for others to back into parking spots.

Instead, they step on the gas pedal and weave around cars as if the spot they are eyeing will be taken.

Hot shot drivers often side swipe cars when they think their car handling skills are superb enough to park in the spot closest to the line of traffic without backing up and readjusting.

Some even disregard students crossing the crosswalk and blow right through them.

After school, there are two types of personalities in students while they leave the parking lot.

Personality type one: They do not give a single care in the world about anyone else and try to get home as fast as humanly possible.

Personality type one can be seen driving recklessly. This may include skipping the entire line of cars by driving in the wrong lane and cutting someone off only inches from their bumper.

Or they can be moving from the back of the parking lot to the front by weaving in and out through parked cars and confused freshman.

These students can even be seen going over the cement blocks in front of the parking spaces and create an awful sound, like the squeezing of a giant balloon that is just about to pop.

It’s ironic that these students are selfish in their actions but always end up expecting a polite person to let them back into the lane.

Junior Rachel Tungol described an incident when she was leaving the back parking lot when a big black Ford truck raced up on her right, going up to the front of the line while cutting everyone off.

“I was annoyed, frustrated, heated, agitated, hot, sweaty and impatient,” said Tungol about the incident.

On the bright side, drivers with common sense can be found in the back parking lot as well. These drivers form a personality category of their own.

Personality type two: They are the happiest people in the world, now that school is over, and are very gracious about allowing others to cut in front of them.

Personality type two can be seen waving people in to join the lane with an annoyingly happy smile.

They also thank every person that lets them into the lane with a wave and that same smile.

They would not dare to skip  ahead of the line of cars as that would offend people and they would not be able to live with the guilt.

They are typically the ones who let the line skippers back in.

The back parking lot scars people for life, physically and mentally.

“I heard someone’s foot got run over in the back parking lot one time,” said senior Breannah Yeh.

Once senior Max Bramer was walking in the back parking lot when he got sandwiched between two cars so tightly he  could have broken his pelvis.

“I am glad I don’t park in the back parking lot, because it is dangerous,” Bramer said.

Simple accidents are caused almost weekly, leaving beautiful new cars that Daddy bought to be left with scratches or bumpers falling off.

Junior Jacob York said there are some students that should not be able to have licenses.

Everyone remembers the one time a student was driving so fast around the corner of the lot that he swerved and ended up crashing into one of the poles annihilating the front of his car.

His tire treads could been seen on the cement for months after, reminding everyone of this stupid accident.

Junior Kylee Hamon says she’s been hit twice this semester within five days of each other.

One accident she described was after school as she was backing up another student, who was parked directly behind her, was backing out as well.

They were both oblivious to that fact so they hit each other square in the bumper.

Luckily, minimal damage was done to either car.

Hamon’s second accident was before school and was a hit and run.

A student side-swiped her car while parking, then proceeded to walk away without  acknowledging his actions.

Fortunately, someone left Hamon a note and she was able to get things resolved.

“Learn from your mistakes and get more experience driving,” Hamon advises.

The danger of the back parking lot can only be rectified if students follow these simple rules:

1. Be courteous and use common sense.

2. Refer to number one.

And remember kids, a happy back parking lot is a happy student body.