One of the most common complaints heard from Townsend students concerns the staircases and the retention of lateness demerits. Students with minimal manners are met on the staircases and only add to the problem. Middle schools often implement a better method of preventing staircase traffic jams, thereby cutting class commute by minutes and lowering lateness while also preventing staircase injuries: directional staircases.
Between bands, most notably lunch bands, the middle staircase is plagued with hoards of students charging from either end causing lots of “excuse me’s” and “sorry’s”
In the morning, students are advised to get to their lockers through the middle staircases only, making sure nobody impedes on those going down from their lockers to their classes at the beginning of the day.
If this rule was applied to the entire day, adjustment to the new three-minute class transition would be much more smooth and reasonable.
Devoting the side staircases to downward movement and the middle for upward movement would accommodate the amount of students going either way rather simply, as the double width of the middle staircase makes it about equal in size to the two side stairs.
Hallways are another issue on their own, as students frequently pause or navigate in all sorts of odd ways in and out of class from one place to another. Here, it is important, to be aware of your surroundings, as you are not the only student trying to get to another class.
Conversations with friends belong elsewhere, not in the staircase. While it may seem restrictive within the school, these very principles are applied in adult life, where people must drive on one side of the road, or follow the bike lane to avoid an accident. Small steps in our youth can lead to important understanding and compliance into adulthood, avoiding traffic tickets or injuries.
While this problem is doomed to persist in the locker rooms, where there is only one staircase, simply placing suggestive signs pointing up or down along the staircases would act as a form of traffic control for students walking to and from class.
This would greatly increase the efficiency with which students can get to and from their classes in the limited time they have to walk there. The avoidance of demerits is something Townsend students are always looking towards, so a rule such as this will bring a great decrease in the amount of late demerits given as well as get everyone to class at a reasonable time.
