Have you ever been stuck behind a painstakingly long line of cars on the road, irritated about the traffic buildup?
Spring-Ford students can certainly relate, as they face a traffic jam in the halls during various portions of the school day due to the amount of students in the senior wing of the 10-12 Center.
“Due to the crowds, sometimes traffic is at a complete standstill,” senior Barcley Trotter said.
Trotter and several others claim that midday, around when lunches start, is the most crowded. This delay makes arriving on time for class difficult if one has a journey from the senior wing to the other side of the building.
“It’s a struggle,” sophomore Amanuel Yemane said. “Getting from place to place while having to go through the tight, crowded hallways leaves me constantly late.”
Spring-Ford is a school that is constantly growing in numbers of students. The bottleneck entrance and exit of the senior wing is the most congested part of campus.
“Everyone walks so slow and it doesn’t help that the hallway is extremely narrow,” sophomore Chase Touey said. “The problem could be solved if the hallways were a lot bigger and the people in them were a lot faster.”
Some students suggested that a hallway connecting the second floor could completely fix this problem because it would provide more routes to distribute students throughout the building, ultimately reducing traffic. However, a proposed second floor hallway would be quite a pricey investment for the district.
Could there possibly be another way of fixing the issue?
“Reversing the direction of the ‘One-Way’ hall and the recently built hallway would reduce the crowded cross section that leaves many stuck,” Spring-Ford Police Lieutenant Gwendolyn Phillips said, “the cross section between the senior wing and the ‘One-way’ is what makes the traffic.”
Phillips, along with other Spring-Ford staff, are constantly moving throughout the building. The senior wing leaves them stuck in a swarm of students as well, making it difficult to cross the building.
Teachers also feel the repercussions of hallway crowds in the classroom. Although there is traffic in the halls, there is a belief that students could make changes to get to class quicker.
“I think that if there were less students distracted by cell phones in the hall, others would be able to move faster,” Biology teacher Mary Ann Group said.
“Around lunch time kids are usually late to class, especially in the senior wing,” AP US History teacher Brad Seltzer said.
While most teachers expect students to make it to class on time, there are some extenuating circumstances taken into account when deciding to issue demerits. Frequency and duration of lateness are certainly factors for educators.
“I understand students who are 30 seconds to a minute late and are trying, but anything over that gets to be a little annoying” Spanish teacher Danielle Stauffer said.
As teachers with classrooms that are more out of the way, Seltzer and Stauffer receive late students more often.
Overall, numerous people at Spring-Ford high school – whether it be teachers, students or advisors – are negatively affected by the overcrowding in the senior wing of the building.
This traffic is comparable to a crowded road with hundreds of cars at a standstill, making travel around the senior wing an irritating hassle.
– Staff Writer Cody Crowe contributed to this story.
