Massive numbers of students flood in the same direction, pressed between narrow hallways, inching forward, as the five minutes of passing time tick away.
Due to a change in school policy, the outdoor hallway between the 300s and 700s is now closed to students during passing time.
Chris Kennedy, the school resource officer, cited safety and state law as the reason for the closed doors.“The school’s decision to close the doors ensures the school’s safety more because a student can’t come in and out the school whenever they please. It ensures more safety because it keeps any issues contained in the school instead of outside of it,” Kennedy said.
This closure also limits access for students to get from building to building, causing congestion in hallways.
“The hallways are very crowded, and I get very claustrophobic walking in them,” Senior Bella Caramico said. “It takes a long time to get to certain classes, so I’m late.” This change affects Caramico and her peers during passing time. “It started this school year because the outdoor hallway is closed so all of the kids can only go one way to those certain hallways,” Caramico said.
Students report the worst areas as the 500s and 600s hallways and when traveling among buildings like going from the 100s/200s to the 500s, 600s, 700s or 800s. “The part that is the most congested is by the library,” Caramico said.
Students suggest some changes to alleviate the problem. “Create wider hallways or more minutes in the passing periods.” Caramico said.
The congestion of the hallways may cause safety concerns. “Kids are constantly pushing and shoving each other and with sicknesses going around this makes it easy for germs to spread,” Caramico said.
Although the hallways seem more crowded this year, it is not due to a changing student population. Vice Principal Christine Cilio said, “We have the same number of students in the building this year as we did last year.”
Principal DiLollo said that the administration is working on some solutions and tried some ideas. “Some of the things we’ve done is allow the 700s to release early, and we’ve asked the 600s to come through the library,” he said. He said that the administration is waiting to see if there are any changes after the 300 students in lab classes go back to Physical Education class.” DiLollo said they are continuing to monitor the situation. “Now that September is behind us, I am reevaluating what the class impact is going to be. If this isn’t enough, I am going to pivot to some other option.”
Principal DiLollo agrees that the hallway congestion is a concern. “The problem is going ahead: We will need to figure it out in the next couple weeks.”
