My son, Stuart, supposedly has one duty. It’s his daily mission during the school year to deliver his sister to her school, Collegiate. As his sister, Lucy Gordon, has advanced through school, her school commitments have evolved; and with such, her need to be at school at varying hours has, too. This year Stuart has been slack in this duty among numerous other facets of his life. So goes the omniscience of a high school senior.

     Therefore, there have been numerous instances this school year where I have been compelled to drive Lucy Gordon to school in order to divert some trauma in her life by being late to school. Actually, driving Lucy Gordon to school use to be one of the true daily pleasures in my life. It allowed me to have 10 minutes or so with my daughter each day when I could bond with her during our “special time.”  At least that’s how it use to work until about two years ago or so when so many of my in route questions started getting answered with “whatevers.” Since I was on the verge of creating the scene of all scenes by exiting my car and having a heated exchange with her at the carpool line should I get just one more of these “whatevers”, I just relinquished the duty to Stuart. Besides since we live south of River Road, as Lucy Gordon has advanced through Collegiate her appropriate school has gotten farther away from our home. With her in high school now, her delivery route requires the entire length of N. Mooreland Road being navigationally negotiated.

     I have always hated the carpool lines at Collegiate. In the Lower School, they at least had staff out directing the traffic. No one got away with just stopping at the front door when you could pull ahead farther and allow others access to the sidewalk to discharge their cargo. This lesson is soon forgotten by middle school. By the time you reach high school, you’ve got to now contend with the older students driving themselves to school; and we all know how considerate teen drivers can be.

     Now I think school carpool lines, and especially Collegiate’s, should operate under a seniority program. You should receive points for how many years you’ve been enduring this nightmare. It needs to be weighted, so if you have multiple children attending the different levels of the school, you receive additional points. Your total points are clearly shown on your vehicle and this establishes who has the right of way. Lower numbered cars must always yield to the higher numbered car. Students driving themselves to school would start with a negative number like 10, but would receive a few points each year so that when they are seniors they do have some seniority but never seniority over a parent. There should also be a penalty system, too. You could lose points for not properly yielding to higher numbered car; and there would be severe penalty points for not yielding at the pedestrian walkway on Mooreland at Jacobs Gym.

     All of this will be moot to me shortly, but I think it should be enacted for those who follow. See yesterday, Lucy Gordon and I had her second driving lesson. Last night, we even looked at some used cars on line. Oh, my problems are just beginning!