Diablo Valley College student Anthony Erdman is none too happy with the bright orange envelope that greeted him on a break from class. It was a $40 parking ticket for not having a student permit on his car.
"I think it's a little screwed up," Erdman said. "I've been here, I have a couple summers here and a year here and they'd always give us a least a week and it's only the second day."
Erdman is not alone. Nearly 300 DVC students received these citations in just the past two days.
"I'm really upset because I just had to pay $200 for books right now and now I have to pay $40 for a ticket," student Natalie Fonseca said.
According to the school website, there is a one-week grace period before tickets would be issued to students who have yet to purchase a $20 permit. Apparently not all the ticket-givers at DVC got the message.
"We're trying to go to school here, we're trying to learn; I don't think we should pay to park, I think that's kind of ridiculous," student Gabriella DeLuca said.
ABC7 contacted DVC officials to find out why there was such a dramatic departure from past practice. They said the tickets are a mistake.
"We apologize to our students who got those tickets and we are taking the steps to notify the vendor who works on the citation collection to wipe away the tickets, parking permit related only," Contra Costa Community College District spokesperson Tim Leong said. "And we will begin normal enforcement starting next Monday, June 20."
At DVC it appears the first lesson of the summer session will be about doing the right thing.
