El Camino’s current parking situation is completely unacceptable. This is the eighth week of classes and students should not be forced to come more than 10 minutes early to find parking.

As it is, many students spend upward of a half hour circling the crammed lots hoping for a space to open up. Some are even moved to tears because of the stress associated with seemingly endless circling and the possibilities of missing an exam or being dropped for too many tardies.

When a student purchases a semester parking permit, it is reasonable to expect that there will be parking available. No one who has paid the $35 charge for a permit should have to park off campus at any time during the semester, however many cars parked on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Cherry Avenue and in the Alondra Park lots can be seen with the current red permits on display each weekday.

Campus Police Chief Mike Trevis, has said “students should be more patient or get to school on time to find parking.” That is not the real problem. Students get to campus early and still can’t find parking. There simply are not enough legal spaces on campus right now.

The argument that there would be spaces available if one just got to campus early enough also makes no logical sense. Any mathematics instructor can verify that if there are 100 spaces and 120 people try to park their vehicles in them at least 20 vehicles will not get a space. Those extra cars get bumped into illegal spaces or off campus.

Unlike taking up off-campus parking intended for neighborhood residents and park patrons, illegal parking on campus doesn’t actually hurt anyone as long as vehicles are not impeding traffic or occupying reserved stalls.

Street parking on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, the one area where campus overflow would seem to have no adverse effects, has recently been shown to be quite dangerous as two pedestrians were hit by a car while crossing Manhattan Beach Boulevard.

No one should have to chose between paying $35 parking tickets for parking on campus outside of a designated space and risking their lives crossing that poorly controlled street.

If the spaces with yellow lines and selected red curbs were opened back up to students for the remainder of this semester, there would be fewer people parking on the streets and less danger of someone getting hit by another car.

This should be done immediately to protect students. Also, the pittance of spaces available in Lot H should be open until sunset, at a minimum, for the benefit of students who arrive mid-morning, when there are no other spaces on campus, but leave after 4 p.m.

These minor changes won’t fix the problem of parking on campus, but they will alleviate some of the nightmare-inducing parking crunch and make students safer.

Calling students “too comfortable to get to class 15 minutes before to find parking,” as Trevis went on the record as saying this week, is both uninformed and does nothing to keep students safe.

The chief should remember that he has a reserved space.