Anyone who has been through the passageway off the new building at SHS during switching time will tell you how phenomenally congested it can get. Entering this crowded hall, you get pushed around, stuck in place, and feel insanely cramped.  With the constant crowd, Lucas Scarante, a SHS junior, shares a few of his experiences in the hallway: “People try cutting you off, they push you, and they get agitated… People walk really slow.” Many students are rightfully concerned that this crowd is inconvenient, and potentially dangerous.

The hallway has abundant potential for disaster. Remember the stampedes in our crowded cafeteria last year? Now imagine a stampede, like those, breaking out in that tiny hallway. With no means of escape, students that couldn’t run with the crowd would get trampled. So, having considered these negative conditions, why aren’t students allowed to walk outdoors, and avoid the crowd altogether? Here is how our administrators answer that question.

According to Mrs. Thomas Graves, “We understand your concerns with the traffic in that (new building) hallway, but understand that having students outside the school is a liability” Graves explained. “The continued safety and protection of our students is of the most importance, thus putting certain rules in place to uphold that is imperative.”  She also acknowledged, as previously mentioned, that there are alternative routes to get to class. In conjunction with Graves’ statement, Mr. Forker shares a similar mentality for the dangers of leaving the doors open. “It opens opportunities for danger when the doors are left open…Does it get congested? Of course, but for the safety of the students this has to be.” Forker also addresses the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary as a revelation to the staff and administrators at Stamford High: “Newtown and everything… It’s bigger than just getting to class; it’s to keep you all safe.”

Students who have to pass through the slow-moving hall to get to class often receive a tardy.  And students who experience multiple tardies fail class. Manshi Bhasvar, a junior at SHS tells of her struggles in traversing the new building traffic: “Going from the eighth floor to the first is the worst, and because of that hallway I’ve been tardy like five times.”  Even the most punctual of students come into class late when they have to travel through the inconvenient, long hall. And though students who are familiar with the layout of SHS know that you can always skip the hallway and go down through the fourth floor instead, many kids can’t avoid the hall. Kids on crutches, for example, have no choice but to get pushed around in this passageway.