The Smoke Signal — Stafford High School — Volume 63, Issue 5, Page 5
Cartoon by Ben Jennings.
The halls of Stafford High School are a war zone between classes. With more than 2,000 students trying to navigate the corridors in four minutes, the simple act of getting from one class to another has become an exercise in patience and frustration.
The problem is not just the volume of students — it’s the behavior. Students stop in the middle of the hallway to talk with friends, oblivious to the river of people trying to flow around them. Couples walk hand in hand, taking up the full width of a corridor. Groups cluster around lockers, creating bottlenecks that back up all the way to the stairwells.
The result? Students are late to class. Teachers are frustrated. And the already-narrow windows for actual learning get eaten up by the chaos of transition time.
There’s a simple fix: keep moving. Treat the hallways like a road. Stay to the right. If you need to stop and talk, step off to the side. If you have to use your locker, have your combination ready and make it quick.
None of this requires a new school policy or administrator intervention. It just requires students to think about the 2,000 other people who are trying to get somewhere at the same time they are.
The next time you feel the urge to stop in the middle of the hallway and catch up with someone you haven’t seen since third period, remember: there are people behind you. There are always people behind you.
Indians, keep moving.