Letter: Officers shouldn’t target vehicles at the high school

To the editor,

Recently the Hastings Police Department has been giving our high school students a hard time in the parking lot while school is in session. The police ticketed some of the students’ vehicles for windows tinted too dark, windshield stickers’ too low and loud exhaust when leaving the parking lot.

I guess I just don’t understand why the police are so worried about the students’ cars that are parked in the lot. The kids could be out stealing, robbing and doing drugs. Instead the students are in school trying to learn and better themselves.

When I was in high school there was security that patrolled the parking lot. They were looking for cars that didn’t have parking stickers. There was also the occasional drug search with K-9 dogs, which are good reasons to drive through the parking lot. I do not think they should be ticketing the kids with pointless things.

I think the police officers need to focus on the drug problem in the school, and not the students’ vehicles. My brother came home from school one day and said, “It isn’t fair that the police can ticket our cars while we are in school.” All the kids are trying to do is make their truck look good. “You know boys and their toys.” I’m a college student with a job, and also drive a truck. I have legally added all the stuff to my truck that the students are getting ticketed for, and just can’t see the problem with it all.

Dylan Ohlahauser

Hastings

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion, hastings, minnesota, spiral, local