Licensed Students, cont.

After attending 40 hours of both regular driving school and behavior management driving school, where participants learn how to cope with road rage and other skills, Stone is a more careful driver. “I don’t have anger management issues, so I don’t think I took anything away from that [course] because I’m not an angry driver,” Stone said. “However, I definitely pay more attention to the speed limit while driving.” and from school and work. Nevertheless, the senior disregarded the punishment and continued driving his friends around for fun. “My parents were aware of this, but they knew that it was my risk that I was taking. If I did get caught again, then they knew that I would get my license taken,” the senior said. “And then that’s my fault. Right? So they were aware of that and let me do that.” whatnot,” Perez said. “But he ended up giving me a citation, or like a ticket, with a notice to appear in court.”

A senior boy, who asked to remain anonymous, recently got his license suspended for a month after a traffic violation this summer. While driving between his friends’ houses at night, the boy rolled through a stop sign at around 20 mph.

A police officer quickly appeared behind the senior and trailed him for several hundred yards before pulling him over. As soon as the boy rolled down his window, the officer immediately asked if the driver had recently consumed drugs or alcohol.

Although the senior was fully sober at the time, he did have marijuana in his car. “As the officers were coming over, they had seen [the marijuana], and they also had smelled it a little bit in my car,” the senior said. With probable cause from the marijuana sighting and odor, an officer took the senior out of the car and patted him down while another searched his car.

Perez appeared in court via Zoom a few months later and, as a minor, was accompanied by his father. Initially, the judge tried to suspend Perez’s license for 30 days but agreed to let Perez write a three-page essay instead.

Even though the judge agreed to reduce the punishment, both Perez and his dad felt that the judge was unnecessarily rude throughout the encounter. “I also didn’t help my case because, basically, he asked at one point what school I go to, and I said Menlo. Then he proceeded to ask my GPA, and I just said, ‘Do I have to legally answer that?’ Because like, I didn't want to tell him my GPA,” Perez said. “I feel like that was kind of personal and not his business. Yeah, it doesn’t seem really related. I think that kind of pissed him off a bit.” few jokes,” Miller said.

According to Miller, driving with the correct paperwork and being prepared when answering questions also can make a big difference. “One time I got pulled over, and I didn’t have my license on me and that didn’t end well,” Miller said. “I also think cops, especially in this area, really like teaching kids a lesson for some reason, so they tend to act mad and scary, so crying and showing you’re sorry for

Senior Sophie Stone

Even though the senior disobeyed the restriction, he still feels he learned a lesson from the experience. “It definitely did make me more cautious about my driving, and just how I act with my car, like, I think now I’m a lot more responsible with it, especially what I put into my car while I’m driving it,” the senior said. “I was just antsy [the night I got pulled over], and I kind of overstepped that and lost a bit of control, and I think as of now I don’t make those mistakes that much anymore.”

Perez felt that the judge’s demeanor prevented him from taking away a positive lesson from the court experience. “I think it was negative because the judge was kind of rude and mean. I feel like if I had gotten a [judge] that was actually trying to make me understand why [distracted driving is] really bad and why I really shouldn’t do it again, rather than just trying to dig at me and whatnot, I think I would have understood it more,” Perez said. “He was more trying to just dig at me as a person, and he tried to dig at my parents for how they’re parenting and whatnot.” speeding or whatever can really help.”

Since the senior was a minor, the officers called his parents and explained the situation to them. The police also agreed to let the senior’s parents handle the drug possession issue with their son and only issued a citation for running the stop sign.

A few months later, the senior boy and his mom logged onto a traffic court Zoom. “I came in there knowing that I had done wrong, and my parents had definitely punished me for [the marijuana] separately,” the senior said. “But the judge was also going really strong at us and going really against my mom as well, which I think is unfair. It was my mess up. It shouldn't be my parents’ fault.”

The judge ultimately decided to restrict the senior’s license for a month, meaning he could legally only drive to

Senior Will Perez similarly appeared in Zoom traffic court after being pulled over for scrolling on his phone while at a red light earlier this year. “I didn’t think being on my phone at the red light was that big of a deal because I had been stopped [at the light] for a while, so I thought it would just be a quick interaction [with the officer] or

Junior Paige Miller has also had stressful interactions with police while driving and believes that, in most situations, the officer’s and driver’s attitudes make a huge difference. A few months ago, Miller was driving 15 mph over the speed limit when a police officer

According to Miller, traffic stops as a teenager usually ignite fear because there are additional pressures when driving with a provisional license. “It’s also pretty scary because if it’s after 11 p.m., and you’re driving with other people and you’re getting pulled over for something, that right there is three infractions in itself, and then there goes your license,”