Millions of Americans break the law, and Peninsula students are no exception. Too often, these laws are arbitrary, and citizens rationalize their illegal behaviors. Laws should be created so that where minor offenses have minor consequences instead of the severe punishments in place now. The most common violations include speeding, jaywalking and downloading illegal music. At the small school level, tickets are issued for parking, locker and tardy violations.

There is widespread confusion as to why these campus rules are enforced so strictly. Junior Brandon Jolly experienced this first hand. He recently was issued a parking ticket in the Peninsula parking lot for parking without a permit four minutes before the lot was available for public use.

“I get that there’s a rule,” Jolly said. “I just think that it’s a little excessive to enforce a rule like that, especially because the spaces that were empty belonged to seniors who had gone home already.”

Occurrences like these are common, and while annoying, they can be costly as well.

“[The ticket] was over 50 dollars, which also seems like a bit too much considering they [the police] are fining high school students.” Jolly said. The issue is that laws like these, along with jaywalking tickets and fines for downloading illegal music, are far too stringent and expensive when applied to teenagers.

Jolly is not the only student displeased with inflexible parking regulations; junior Devin Kennedy-Pavelock recently parked in Riviera Village and received a 45 dollar ticket even though he caught the meter maid before the ticket had been printed.

“I caught the meter maid, and I told him I was putting more change in, and he kept writing the ticket because he said it was his civic duty.” Kennedy-Pavelock said. “The meter maids need to relax.”

Throughout time, laws have been enacted to protect citizens. However, laws should be reviewed periodically to determine whether they are useful in that endeavor or unsuccessful in making life safer and better for us. Perhaps the motivations to enact these whimsical laws are driven by lawmakers desire to increase revenues at the price of citizens. While many of these laws result from public safety concerns, the risk that one imposes by parking in a parking space four minutes before the allowed time is preposterous. Laws should be fair and not arbitrarily or capriciously applied with a “gotcha” attitude.