Jayme Estrada

The second floor hallway at Johnson tends to have the most congestion.

As the bells ring for class, students flood the halls to get to their next class, but during this time, they also catch up with their friends and walk around with the remaining time. However, this is a problem with some of the student body. 

Students stand in the middle of the hallway talking to their friends, or they walk slowly while talking and they take up hallway space with their friend group. Students think that it is a major issue and a disturbance to their day.

“Yeah, I think that the hallways are always crowded,” freshman Amaya Wellington said. “Probably because there’s so many people trying to stop and talk to their friends and people also walking so slow, so they don’t have to go to class so soon.”

Students have six minutes to get to class. There is a one minute warning bell and a secondary bell which is the tardy bell. But every day, students still roam the halls and fill them up with no regard for the bells.

Homeroom slides have recently stated that starting this semester, administrators will start conducting tardy sweeps. That has yet to happen.

“I think we could be smarter about where we stop and just be more aware of what’s happening around us,” Amaya said. “Maybe, like gathering in specific places so the middle of the hallways aren’t so packed.” 

This year, the decision to remove the cushioned chairs that were located all over the school was implemented to  curve the students roaming around. The only chairs that remain are the chairs all over the first floor. 

“I think they should put the couches and other stuff back in the corners, so that they gather in the corner,” Amaya said. “There are so many possibilities of things that can happen with the crowded hallways like people’s feet getting stepped on, tripping or falling. For example, someone could be going up the stairs and someone could block them from moving.”

There are 2,825 students at Johnson. This overfill of students could be the reason for the clogged hallways.

“People being in groups and talking to each other, standing in the middle of the hallway for no reason. It gets really irritating if someone is standing in my way and not moving,” senior Castro Gomez said. “Go to smaller spaces where it’s less crowded like near the walls and not just stand in the middle of the hallway; talk on the way to class.”