Sleep deprivation has become the norm in high schoolers’ lives. While this usually means staying up into late hours of the night watching TikTok, at Grosse Pointe South, it can mean waking up at the crack of dawn to find a parking spot.

With a limited number of parking passes available to students below 12th grade, many, such as Cate Hampton ’24, struggle to find a place to put their car in the morning while still getting those precious eight hours of sleep.

“I wish everyone could just make a collective agreement to not show up before 7:30 a.m.,” Hampton said. “I want to sleep more.”

Without a senior parking pass, Hampton has to arrive at school between 7:05 and 7:15 a.m. to get a parking spot in front of the J Lot on Fisher Rd.

“I like to be close to the school, and you have to get there early to be close,” Hampton said. “You can get a spot until the beginning of school, it’s just you’re all the way by the library.”

Assistant Principal Cindy Parravano oversees parking at South. She explains that, since enrollment has declined, administration can offer all seniors a parking pass if they used some of the J Lot spots and the entire S Lot.

“We moved to that model and found that we didn’t have enough seniors to completely fill the lot, so we started doing a junior lottery where you could apply for a permit and we would pick students with the remaining spots left in the J Lot,” Parravano said.

While juniors and sophomores may not have the privilege of a year-round parking permit, any senior who wants one does. Copper Evans ’23 has a spot in the middle of the S Lot by the main gym this year, and is able to arrive at school much closer to the 8 a.m. starting time.

“To avoid the rush, (I get here) around 7:40 a.m.,” Evans said. “It gets crazy with everyone trying to get in at the same time, so I get there a little earlier.”

Evans says S Lot parking permits make the morning parking experience much easier for him and other seniors.

“Because students registered, they don’t have to get there early to find a spot,” Evans said. “They have a registered spot. They paid for a spot.”