During first and second lunch, groups of students have been gathering in hallways and stairwells that are not open for student use. The spaces were closed to limit disruptions, reduce mess, and keep students in supervised areas.
“We were asked to close them up because there are so many kids sitting in the stairwells, and they were unfortunately smoking, and teachers were being interrupted during their lunch time, and it was just because of safety reasons too, because it’s not safe. Actually, no one’s supposed to be back there in general because it’s always been, but now we use the barricades to make sure no one goes back there and lock it, unfortunately, but hopefully it’s not forever,” Stacia said.
Even with barricades in place, supervision during first and second lunch can be more difficult because classes are still in session and students continue trying to enter the area.
“But you do find that some kids choose to go back there when they’re not supposed to. They’ll just go past the barricade, but it really does help eliminate majority of the students,” Stacia also added.
Teachers in nearby classrooms say the noise and movement in the hallways pulls attention away from instruction.
“Yeah, so during second lunch, sometimes when kids are coming in through, and they’re hooting and hollering and stomping, and sometimes they run up and down the halls, and some of them will bang down doors and things while class is in session, so sometimes kids look up and are distracted by that,” Marsh said.
Campus monitors and administration have started locking the doors to the 900’s because they’ve dealt with trash and damage left behind in the stairwells.
“So, before they started locking the doors, and kids were congregating there for lunchtime, most of the time, there would be garbage all over the stairs. Sometimes they would get a little rowdy and dump the big garbage can, so there’s garbage all over the floors. There’s been spit, and people walk through, and globs of spit all over the floors, water over the floors because they’re throwing water at each other from water bottles, apples, and sandwiches thrown up on the ceilings and stuck to the ceilings. So yeah, that was a big problem,” Marsh also added.
Some students say the crowds make it harder to move through the hallways and get to class without being distracted.
“Yeah, I’ve noticed a lot of people have been crowding the hallways, and it creates frustration because I can’t get to class and it delays it,” Urtz said.
Others say enforcement depends on whether staff members are nearby or not.
“I feel like nobody really used to do that, but I feel like it’s the Freshman this year, it’s not really anyone else doing it. If you want to come over here, they’ll just tell you not to, but if they’re not over there, you can just walk over here. So, I don’t think they really care,” Monnarez said.
