The Line that Sprawled Forever

The+original+image+and+more+like+it+can+be+found+here%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fmiami.cbslocal.com%2F2020%2F08%2F26%2Fpetition-launched-save-pembroke-pines-principal-job%2F

Photo Edited by: Megan Ingram

The original image and more like it can be found here: https://miami.cbslocal.com/2020/08/26/petition-launched-save-pembroke-pines-principal-job/

Samantha Miragliotta, SMALL COPY EDITOR

   A line of close to 300 cars formed at Pembroke Pines Charter High School in Broward County while waiting for their textbooks, workbooks, and portfolios. Some students reported four hour wait times in what felt like an infinitely long line. During these uncertain times school has been temporarily postponed, but that has not stopped the students of Pembroke Pines Charter High School from gathering their textbooks for the new year ahead of them. 

   In order for this to happen, students were assigned specific days and times for when to obtain their hard copy textbooks; however, it did not go as smoothly as faculty had hoped. While picking up their textbooks and workbooks for school, they encountered numerous difficulties on their assigned days. For instance, the original plan was to separate the students with their last names, A through L, on Monday to maximize efficiency, but no one the sheer length of the car line, as well as the problem it produced. 

   Not only was the experience slow, but it angered large numbers of students and parents. Mile long lines that wrapped around the entire school, wasted gas, and long delays were all issues. Some waited for as little as an hour or 30 minutes, but that seemed to be only for the lucky ones, expressed sophomore Amanda Roman, who “…waited three excruciating hours in [her] car waiting and waiting for only one of [her] textbooks in a line that wrapped around the entire school to the Starbucks down the block.” This situation also begs the question of how long other students waited in a school with a larger amount of students. An apology was even sent out to help ease upset students and parents. Principal of PPCHS. Mr. Bayer offered volunteer hours for the parents to make up for the unexpected delay. Junior Melanie Miguel stated that “[she] thinks that the school should have anticipated the lines and made better arrangements for picking them up.” Melanie is one of the many students who had to experience sitting in her car for hours upon hours, to receive nothing more than a school textbook due to the terribly long lines.

    Some families had prior arrangements or events they planned on doing after, which either had to be postponed or cancelled due to the unforeseen circumstances. No one would have anticipated that this line would have caused so much inconvenience for students and parents. Regardless, as the event is now in the past, the PPCHS student body can hope that this is the last major kink in the ever growing web of online schooling.