Eighteen-year-old Samantha Kidner, a mortuary science student and proud hearse owner, has been denied the right to park her car in her apartment complex’s parking lot. Many residents complained that the hearse was “creepy” and that they “didn’t want to see it or think about what was inside” according to ABC 7 news. Kidner, who is also disabled, said she dreams of opening up a funeral home with her twin sister.
Currently, the hearse serves a double purpose as a practical vehicle for her future profession and a way to transport her wheelchair. The Lorenzo, Kidner’s Los Angeles apartment complex, has forbidden her from parking in the handicap parking spaces, despite her handicap license plates.
Kidner said that the management for The Lorenzo “doesn’t want it on the property at all.” The Lorenzo’s prohibition of Kidner’s hearse is discrimination and has no practical reasoning. The apartment complex has gone to great lengths to prevent Kidner from parking on the property because of opinion-based complaints that hold no precedence over the law.
Kidner said that her mother and sister are on the lease, and she worries that her choice of vehicle alone will result in her eviction from the complex. A spokesperson for The Lorenzo, Laura Nissley, validates the decision to have Kidner’s car removed by saying “Samantha Kidner is not a resident of Lorenzo, nor does she have an active lease to become a resident in the future. If she is the one operating the vehicle, then there is guest parking made available to her on a first-come, first-serve basis same as anyone else.” However, after doing some research on California apartment leasing laws, I found this argument to be unjustified.
“In California and most other states … if someone has lived in your apartment for 30 days or more, he’s considered a tenant even if he never signed a lease,” according to homeguides.sfgate.com. It seems that The Lorenzo is grasping at straws in order to have Kidner’s car removed. Their determination to stand by their argument does not hide that fact that it is seriously lacking in lawful reasoning.
After refusing to allow Kidner to park her hearse on the property, The Lorenzo instructed her to park her hearse in the parking lot of a children’s hospital next door. Kidner, in response, said “I’ve had five brain surgeries as a child. Parents don’t want to come see their kids in the hospital and see a hearse parked in the parking lot.” Kidner also even pays for two parking spaces for her hearse and is still denied the right to keep it on the property, according to a CBS Los Angeles report. There is nothing obscene about a hearse, especially since Kidner’s car choice is for her intended career and fits her wheelchair. Kidner is not trying to create trouble and should not have to endure such discrimination over her choice of vehicle.
When I asked UT students how they would feel about seeing a hearse on campus, many expressed indifference. Katie Killebrew, senior and media arts major, said “I think having a hearse as a car is different and pretty sweet but not at all odd. I would never tell someone they can’t drive one just because it creeps me out.”
In fact there is a UT employee, Library Periodicals Specialist, Holly Farnell, who drives a hearse and many students have noted seeing it around campus. “I definitely think Tampa is a very open community. People are not so much opposed to my hearse as they are curious. I always take the time to show it to them and once they see the inside they realize it’s just like any other car. I haven’t had anything negative happen.” Farnell said, when asked how Tampa residents react to her hearse. When the trouble Kidner was experiencing was mentioned to Farnell, she said that she would be very upset if she was forced to remove her car from campus.
The Lorenzo’s refusal to allow a tenant to park her car on the property is absolutely appalling, and apparently there is a large community of supporters who agree. Shortly after the news of Kidner’s car troubles, many hearse owners in the LA area drove their hearses to The Lorenzo to stage a “Hearse-In” according to CBS 2 news. Kidner’s supporters drove their hearses into the parking lot in protest of the harassment Kidner has been facing by The Lorenzo. One protester, Lydia Robinvale, commented on the situation by saying “I think it’s ridiculous, it is discrimination. She pays for a parking spot, she actually is disabled.”
I think that to refuse Kidner her right to park in the handicap parking space, that she is not only entitled to but paid for, is an extreme overreaction to a vehicle that poses no threat to the community. A hearse may be creepy, but to say it genuinely disturbs other residents is clearly an exaggeration, and to force her to park it at a children’s hospital is insensitive and absurd. The only significant interruption in the life of any resident at The Lorenzo caused by this hearse, was Samantha Kidner’s.
Sam Allen can be reached at samantha.allen@spartans.ut.edu