Hallways Crave an Effective Maneuvering System
Hallways should be a place to move from class to class, not a socialization center. It is impossible to move through the hallway with crowds of people talking and snail-crawling. If we only have four minutes to rush from the third floor to some classroom on the opposite end of the first floor, it would be a lot more helpful if the hallways were passable.
Sophomore Jamie Semel also thinks the halls have gotten out of control. “I totally understand wanting to say hi to your friends, but there is no reason to do that in the middle of the hallway. People have places to get to, and it’s rude to stand there knowing you are blocking the hallway.”
I am sure teachers and faculty have realized what a mess hallways are between classes and that is probably why the up and down staircases were originally created.
Before there were up and down stairs, the high schools main staircases were chaos and inefficient.
With the changes to the staircases, traffic is now more controlled. Security Guard Lady J, who has been at the school since before the up and down stairs were created, said that the up and down staircases have “worked out very well.”
The main staircases have controlled a lot of the between period traffic and they have created a safer environment. What needs to happen is a plan for the hallways so they are more maneuverable.
Simply staying to the right side of the hallway is a start. The constant stream of people going both directions taking up the full hallway is unnecessary and if everyone stayed to the right, there would be a much better chance of some sort of order in the hallways.
The school has already created a system for moving up and down the hallways, why not go one step more and create a system for moving around the hallways?
However, even if there is a system for managing the hallways, it is the student’s responsibility to put the plan into action and keep it running smoothly.
The problem is the up and down staircases sometimes become a free zone. The up staircase usually have a security guard on the second floor next to the cafeteria. It is pretty reliable that there will be someone there and that they will enforce the up only policy. However, on the opposite side, the down staircase always seems to lack a guard or any means of controlling the traffic flow. Whenever I head down the down stairs, I can always count on a handful of students who fight through the crowds heading down.
Lady J said that the up and down staircases are not the first priority for the security guards as they have a lot of other things that they also need to worry about. This is why there is often never any security guard standing on the second floor next to the down stairs.
Without a security guard present all of the time students should not use it as an opportunity to dash the wrong way on the stairs. Students should be responsible and use the stairs for the way they were intended with or without somebody present to monitor them.
The up and down staircases, when used properly, are a great way to control the between class traffic. The school should now go one step further and create a system for managing traffic in the hallways.
