Dean of Students Paul Murray addressed growing concerns about traffic safety near campus in an email sent to faculty and 11th and 12th-grade students earlier today, following three reports of unsafe driving in the area over the past 36 hours.
According to the email, these behaviors include speeding, quickly accelerating and slamming on brakes, and quickly peeling out of the lot onto Middlesex Road.
“Being able to drive and park at the School is a privilege,” Murray said. “If you are going to abuse that privilege, we are going to act quickly and unequivocally.”
According to Murray, students who recently obtained their driver’s licenses and applied for parking spots at the gymnasium lot were required to read and sign a safety contract.
“The first two lines of the contract say that I will follow all safety rules and drive carefully down the parking lot,” Murray said. “Those two things aren’t happening now.”
Any students observed engaging in unsafe driving behavior around the school will have their parking privileges permanently revoked, according to Murray.
“If any faculty member reports to me that they feel your driving is unsafe, I will indefinitely revoke your parking privileges,” Murray said in the e-mail. “This is non-negotiable. I will brook no discussion or explanation for your unsafe driving because there is no justification for your unsafe driving.”
Any parking spaces that become available will be offered to student drivers who received their licenses later in the school year and are currently on the parking waitlist.
“The last thing I’ll say is that I trust our faculty,” Murray said. “If they think a student is driving in a manner that is potentially unsafe and they tell me that, I’m going to take their word for it.”
Murray advises to drive safely to keep their parking spots and driving privileges.
