As parents and community members, we trust our schools to take reasonable steps to protect students while they are on campus. I believe there is a significant gap in that responsibility at Graham High School that deserves our community’s attention: students are permitted to park on campus without verifying they are legally licensed and insured to drive.

This may sound like a minor administrative issue. It isn’t.

Over the past several years, I have personally witnessed 14- and 15-year-old students driving vehicles on our high school campus, which raised serious concerns about whether they were legally licensed to drive. Yet our current system does not require every student who parks on school property to register the vehicle and provide proof of a valid driver’s license and insurance.

That should concern every parent whose child walks through the parking lot and the streets surrounding the high school, every student who legally drives to school, and every taxpayer in this district.

What is particularly concerning is that Graham’s lack of such a system is not necessarily the norm. Student parking permits and driver verification are common practices at Texas high schools. Schools across the state require students to register their vehicles before parking on campus, and many require a valid driver’s license and current proof of insurance before a permit is issued. Some Texas schools specifically require that the student’s name appear on the insurance policy as an authorized driver.

These requirements are not unusual or excessive. They are basic safeguards designed to ensure that the young person granted the privilege of driving and parking on school property is legally authorized to do so.

High school parking lots are already busy environments filled with inexperienced drivers, pedestrians, parents, buses, and vehicles arriving and leaving within a very short period of time. Allowing vehicles onto school property without verifying that the student driver is legally authorized and insured creates an unnecessary risk.

The solution is neither complicated nor expensive.

Graham ISD should implement a mandatory student parking permit system. To receive a permit, a student should provide a valid driver’s license, proof of current automobile insurance showing the student as an authorized driver, vehicle information, and parent or guardian authorization. A numbered permit displayed in the vehicle would allow the school to readily identify which vehicles are authorized to be on campus.

Students who follow the law and school rules should have no difficulty meeting these requirements.

This isn’t about punishing teenagers or making school more bureaucratic. It is about establishing a basic safeguard before something irreversible happens.

Driving to school and parking on taxpayer-funded school property are privileges. Requiring students to demonstrate that they are legally permitted and insured to drive before granting that privilege is a reasonable expectation — and one already imposed on student drivers at numerous Texas high schools.

I am asking the Graham ISD administration and Board of Trustees to review the current parking policy and implement a mandatory student parking permit and verification system at Graham High School.

I also encourage parents and community members to ask a simple question:

Do we know that the students driving onto our high school campus are legally licensed and insured?

If the answer is no, we should not wait for a serious accident to decide that verification was necessary.

Our community does not need to reinvent the wheel. Texas school districts are already using straightforward parking permit systems to address this exact issue. Graham ISD can do the same.

This is a simple, sensible step we can take now to protect our students, families, and community.

Concerned Parent of GISD Student