When arriving to school early, senior Dominic Katsbulas finds a parking spot in senior parking without a problem. However, when running late and arriving at 7:55 a.m. or later, the only available spots reside in junior parking.

“Sometimes I’m late to my first hour, and that’s partly my fault, but it is annoying and time-consuming to have to walk further,” Katsbulas said.

Having a senior parking permit as an underclassmen is becoming increasingly common.

“This year I’ve heard from numerous people that we’ve got a bunch of underclassmen that have senior (passes),” security guard Chris Goulter said. “I’ve been here for 11 years, and this is the first time it’s been such a big deal. (Now) kids think they can get away with it.”

Junior Riley Bane uses a senior pass because her sister is a senior.

“I think most (underclassmen get senior parking) because they have other family members (that are seniors),” Bane said.

While underclassmen use siblings’ passes, stolen senior parking permits are an even bigger issue.

“We’ve had a handful of seniors that have purchased multiple senior passes because their originals have been stolen,” Goulter said. “Really, if you park where you’re supposed to, you don’t break any rules (and) you don’t get in any accidents, I have no way of knowing (the pass is stolen).”

Not only are some underclassmen causing limited senior parking space, but this year’s larger senior class and the construction increase congestion.

“It’s just a perfect storm of things that have gone wrong to force seniors back,” Goulter said.

Some seniors feel as though the lack of parking compounds other issues felt by their class.

“I just think it’s really frustrating,” senior Maddie Hill said. “I feel like our class gets (cheated) out of a lot of stuff (and) we don’t (even) get to park in senior parking now.”

While Katsbulas finds the lack of senior parking irritating, he maturely admits that if he had the chance to use the senior parking lot as an underclassmen, he most likely would.

“It kind of sucks because we’ve been waiting for senior parking, but I’d probably do the same thing if I had a sibling,” Katsbulas said.