It’s seven forty A.M, you know you had to be on time for your Chemistry exam but you were too tired, you studied all night long; you grab your car and start racing up Antioquia’s most dangerous and one of the most crowded expressways, you are ten miles above the speed limit, crashed and killed someone. You now have bigger problems than your Chemistry exam.

The Columbus School students tend to dispute to certain rules imposed by the school, but they are ignorant to the policies that are actually trying to protect you, one of the most controversial situations at the school is the promotion of the road and transportation safety inside and outside the school.

“The rules at the Manual de Convivencia are made to be followed and not to be disregarded,” Juan Fernando Mesa, School’s Service Director, said.

Rule #1

The most enforced and imposed rule regarding student public transportation is that any student with no seatbelt fastened, is not allowed to leave the school, in the worst case, the bus crashes, you could be saved by your seatbelt.

“If a student dies, 9 lawsuits of approximately seven hundred million pesos would be entering legal procedures against our school, but since all these rules have been made so clear to the students, any lawsuit directed to the school would be now aiming for the bus driver and assistant,” Mesa said.

Rule #2

Approximately sixteen or seventeen years ago, a student who drove toward school hit a mother with her child, the girl died and her mother was left highly injured. This is the reason why rule number two which says that students are not allowed to enter the school driving their own cars is so important.   

“After this, we as a community were determined to make the decision that students are not allowed to enter our school driving their own cars, furthermore that year, several student were involved in car accidents in Las Palmas,” Maria Victoria Jaramillo, High School Discipline Director, said.  

“You are moving towards school, if you were to have an accident it would be like if the school were to facilitate you being involved in an accident,” Mesa said.

There’s another factor inside the school facilities, the space is very limited, the school lacks parking spaces even for the staff and members, it’s unthinkable to try to fit another approximately 250 cars.

“The space is limited, given the fact that we host administrative personnel, scholar buses, private cars, among others. We try to impose the idea that the students should use the transportation that the school provides them,”  Juan Carlos Ocampo, Transport Coordinator, said.

Also traffic inside school is an issue in the entry as well as in the exit. Not only the space is limited, but the traffic would increase exponentially every time a student parks a car inside the school.  

“And so, we can avoid dealing with issues of mobility and traffic caused by the amount of vehicles entering the school,” Ocampo said.

Rule #3

The school’s authorities may seem powerful, but their authority is very limited outside of the school, this is why students aren’t allowed to walk to school, imagine something happens to you whenever you are walking to school.

“No one dies inside here, no one dies coming here, these are the two most important obligations I have towards the school community,” Mesa said.

Parking is a fundamental skill but young students who briefly know how to drive are still learning how to park, this is another problem that the school tries to prevent, legal authorities can tow your car or an accident can be caused by a wrong parked car.

“Some doctors who lived nearby, couldn’t get on time to some surgeries they needed to perform because of some of our students parking incorrectly and obstructing the road, hence the rule that they can not enter on foot,” Jaramillo said.

The Last Word

Every action made by the school is entirely determined to protect you and everyone around you, even though they may seem a little harsh, they aim for good and we as students should appreciate the effort the staff does for us.

“Its crucial for the school, to look out for the students and watch over each and every staff member’s safety,” Maria Victoria Jaramillo said.