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Fortunately, TABC is a big school, population wise, but unfortunately this means there are a lot of kids crowding the hallways. The hallways at TABC, specifically in the older part of the building, were not designed for this many students. Thanks to the aforementioned growth in student populations the hallways simply can not contain the entire student body. The average hallway width in the building is approximately 6 feet. However, this number instantly decreases several feet when lockers (
sometimes on both sides of the hallways) are open with people retrieving classroom paraphernalia. The halls are too small to accommodate all of TABC’s students, staff, and visitors. Upon being asked to comment about the state of the hallways Jacob Reinitz (11th grade) said, “With hallways these crowded I can very rarely get to class on time.”
There are some spots that are often even more crowded than other spots. Take for example the area by the monitor right past where the security guard sits, between the mens’ and womens’ bathrooms. This is a prime spot for alerting students, teachers, and visitors regarding TABC news, updates, and upcoming events because it is in a location where nearly everyone walks passed. However, for the same reason, the screen causes massive traffic jams of students. To make matters worse, throughout the year there are sometimes videos, live streams of sports events, and the like playing on the screen causing an even bigger throng in the small space. It is nearly impossible to get passed this crowd when they are engrossed in TABC playing basketball against a rival school at Sarachek.
Another place of gathering is right outside of Mr. Poleyeff’s office. The window of his office is often home to assorted schedules, schedule changes, reminders, and lists of classes and students. Students often crowd around “Mr. P’s glass” to review these updates, causing the hallway to be practically impossible to maneuver through. Updating students is important but in our day in age and with modern technology, sending out emails or texts en mass would be some much easier and convenient.
How can this issue be solved? Jacob Gordon (11th grade) says that “widening the hallways would reduce congestion,” but this isn't such a feasible solution. Widening the hallways would require classrooms be made smaller, assuming only internal construction is done. We also can’t easily minimize the student body.
It’s a problem, and it's one with no quick and easy solution.
To find out how to fix our conundrum let us examine the additional causes of the swarming hallways.:
There are several reasons for the crowded hallways, aside from their size and the sheer amount of people using them. Students often stop to chat in the hallway. This is very inconvenient. It is common that students need to get by and two students are standing in their way prating, usually about petty matters. Students who wish to converse in the hallway, should step into an unused classroom, a side hallway, or at least off to the side, to do so. Standing in the middle of the hallway is just bothersome and obnoxious, and frustrates kids who need to get by.
Additional causes for the difficult to maneuver walkways can be attributed to people walking slowly, people walking in large groups, people acting wildly in the hallway (running, throwing things, etc.) and reading while walking. Such inconveniences are vexing and cause mass traffic jams in the corridors. Students need to be more considerate of their classmates and try staying to the right of the hallway whenever possible.
Perhaps the biggest cause of our crowded hallways can be attributed to students looking at their phones, iPads, and other electronics. Virtually every student at TABC has a cell phone, with a massive percentage of that number owning a smartphone. 50% of teens in the United States feel they are addicted to their phones. This generation has a technological addiction and its congesting our hallways. Students on their phones walk significantly slower and are notably less alert, bumping into people and thus increasing the amount of collisions in the hallways, making the hallways ever more of an unpleasant traveling experience.
What we can do is start behaving with more respectful, considerate manners while in the hallways. Students need to calm down, be alert and stop bumping into each other (especially when not followed with an apology). Students must stop talking in the middle of the hallways and those who wish to talk can step off to the side. Students need to walk on the right side of the hallway and most importantly we all need to get off of our phones, especially while in the hallways. If we all look out for eachother we can all get places quicker!
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