By Sloane Samberson
Managing Editor
@Sloane_Samberson
Theft is not at all common in the safe bubble that is Coppell, but at Coppell High School there has been a recent surge of thievery in the parking lot. No, cars are not being broken into, but parking stickers are being removed from student’s bumpers and back windows.
Who are the presumed thieves? CHS senior students.
“I’m not exactly sure why they are being stolen,” assistant principal Ryan Lam said. “I think some senior students are addressing their frustration with juniors parking in senior parking by removing their parking stickers.”
Adrian Crawford is one junior who was targeted.
“I was surprised that someone would take the time to peel off a sticker from my car,” Crawford said. “But I was also angry because that sticker was worth $50 and someone arbitrarily decided to steal it.”
On the day Crawford’s parking sticker was stolen, she was parked in a row facing Parkway Boulevard. This spot is not tagged with the red paint indicating the spot is assigned senior parking.
“I was not parked in a senior spot from this year; only near one that was a senior parking spot last year,” Crawford said. “I don’t know exactly who did it, but I heard it was one of the senior girls doing it as a joke.”
This has not been an issue in the past and administrators do not want it to continue but reports of stolen parking stickers continue to come in.
“I don’t have an exact count of how many thefts there have been, but an amount of students, in double digits, have reported that their parking sticker was stolen,” Lam said.
There are legal ramifications regarding stolen parking stickers.
“Anything that is taken can technically be a Class C offense,” CHS Resource Officer Diane Patterson said. “It could also be ticketed as an offense for theft if you could prove who did it, and if the individual whose parking sticker was taken wanted to press charges.”
If caught stealing other students parking stickers, there will be in-school punishment. As far as preventing parking sticker theft, no solution has been decided.
“I have talked to Officer [Ian] Medina about putting parking stickers on the interior of the car, and those are things we are going to continue to discuss to provide appropriate solutions so this doesn’t keep occurring,” Lam said.
Officer Medina will continue to be vigilant when checking senior parking to assure that general parkers are addressed when parking outside of their zone.
“We will have maintenance retagging staff parking so that seniors will have more parking near the front,” Lam said. “This will domino effect into providing more general parking near the main road.”
If a student’s parking sticker is stolen, they should report it to Lam or Medina. If neither are contactable, they can go to Amy Stroh in Student Services South. Stroh will contact Lam or Medina so that they can initiate an investigation.
In the meantime, Stroh can issue students a replacement parking sticker.
“We do not promote the idea of seniors engaging in [tampering with] other student’s cars,” Lam said. “We ask that they please inform Officer Medina about any violations that they see within the senior parking area.”
