The following is based on a true story of a real problem at Evergreen.
CW: This piece mentions campus feeling unsafe due to sexual harassment and assault.
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PLEA TEXT
It was a chilly Thursday morning, and I had just parked in one of Evergreen’s many lots. I headed over to the parking meter, a feeling of calm throughout my body. I had ten minutes to spare after a week of running late. I attempted to type my license plate number and smiled as the meter only displayed the letters “TTT.” Is there a single T on my license plate? Of course not, but that’s how the parking meter is; it likes to play these funny jokes. After a couple of minutes, everything was accounted for, $5 paid so that my car could sit in that lot until 9 pm. I began walking across campus, happy that my time hanging out with the meter hadn’t made me late.
The week before, I had two minutes to get to class. I ran across the lot and attempted to pay for parking. Even though I had the money, the meter flashed “could not read card” five times in a row. As I was very low on time, I found the meter’s attempts to play games a lot less cute. I had no change or cash, so naturally, the next step was to try not to cry and run to class (a strict no tardy policy is in place). I decided I would talk to someone as soon as my class ended. I checked my bank account and noticed that I had been charged for parking despite the so-called inability to read my card. After my class was over, I hurried back to my car, noticing a little green envelope stuck in my window. I had been a bit worried about this possibility, and although dread settled in my throat, I was unsurprised by this outcome. Did it seem a bit wrong that my card was charged and I still got a ticket? Or that the officer couldn’t even bother to get my license plate information, right? (I suppose a combination of 7 letters and numbers is quite tricky to remember, even when they’re right in front of you.) Of course, it did, but it was an understandable mistake.
This Thursday, however, I had no fear as I walked back to my car, eager to get home to spend the night watching tv with my partner. I had paid a full day’s worth. I was clear. In fact, I had chosen $20 worth of parking over groceries this week so that I could avoid another small green envelope in the driver’s seat window. But even from a distance, I could see the green rectangular shape. My eyes hardened, and when I read the ticket, the message “must pay to park” stood out as the most condescending sentence I had ever seen. There was even the same incorrect display of my license plate number, even more off-putting the second time. I squished the ticket into a ball in my hand and drove home, my hands gripping the steering wheel in anger the whole time.
I guess if I think about it, making broke college students pay $50-$150 a quarter to park so that they can go to the classes that have been paid for by them or their families does sound like a good time. And charging them five times the amount of a parking payment they’ve paid? That’s admirable if I think about it. Like everything else this college does!
In all seriousness, this is about more than being charged unfairly. My car is like a cocoon of safety after unsafe/uncomfortable experiences that the bus could not get me out of (bless bus drivers, the fifteen to thirty-minute waiting periods are just unfortunate when the campus is not a safe place). Every time I leave the college, I walk as quickly to my car as possible after so many warnings of dangerous people on campus, always making sure to leave before dark. I count my steps and think, “only this many yards to go before I’m safe in my car.” And to have to choose to pay for parking over groceries just to keep that feeling of safety in place? And being charged even more as a consequence for something I didn’t even do? It’s rubbing salt in the wound, whether this ticket gets appealed or not.
JUDGEMENT DATE:
JUDGEMENT ACTION: PENDING
JUDGEMENT COMMENTS:
