When you think of parking lot enforcement, you think of a stern, stoic person who won’t take no for an answer. This couldn’t be further from the truth for Evan Givens. Givens has been working at Shorewood for two years and has enjoyed every second of it. Givens works as a behavior technician and doubles as the new parking lot monitor.
According to the California Autism Center, behavior technicians work with students with behavioral setbacks. Givens has been tied to the line of work for a while and doesn’t intend to stop now. “I work with students with IEPs, and I take data on their learning goals,” Givens said. The inspiration to become a behavioral technician didn’t solely come from there though. “I used to teach English in Japan, and I came back to the US and worked with kids on the autism spectrum.”
Givens’ time working in Japan led him into the education aspect, and working with students that are on the autism spectrum turned into a nice combination as a behavior technician, with helping teach the kids on the autism spectrum works with being a behavior technician. “I kind of blended them by coming here,” said Givens.
Being a behavioral technician isn’t Givens’ only position at the school though, as he also works as the parking lot enforcement officer.
The parking lot can be a scary place for some people, especially for those who don’t have a parking pass. Passes are required to park in the lots, however has had little enforcement over the years. “We haven’t been enforcing it since the pandemic,” Givens said. “A lot of people who are not buying passes are coming in and taking spots.” Now, Givens has been appointed to identify cars that don’t have them. “My second responsibility is parking enforcement,” said Givens. “They [the school] asked me to come in and enforce that.”
The whole point of the parking pass system is to regulate who can and who can’t park within the parking lot, with a price wall being the main deterrent between parking in the lot and not. “I’ve just been giving out warnings,” Givens said, and these warnings come in slips. These little green slips that are handed out cover most of the parking lot woes: “People parked in a handicapped space, people parking in places that aren’t parking spaces, and still a few people parking on campus with no permit.” Being fined or towed are the main ways the slip convinces those parked who have checked a box to move. Sophomore street is always an option. “We want to prioritize people who did spend money on a pass,” Givens said.
Behavior technician and parking lot enforcement aren’t very similar, but Givens does both well. Despite his short time working here, Givens has made an impact in what he has done for Shorewood.