My friends and I all walk to class like a small group of seals trying to squeeze through the giant gathering of penguins on their Antarctic island in six minutes. That’s not cool (but it is cold). Six minutes isn’t enough time with how crowded the halls are. Many students, myself included, don’t want to feel like seals flopping their way through a group of penguins, we want to feel like high school students strolling freely to their next block.

There’s a rule, I swear, at least two teachers from every school I’ve been to have told me about walking on the right side of the hall, but somehow most people think that means that we need to form into one giant entity right in the middle of the hallway. I think everyone listening to that rule would be the best way to fix the crowded halls, but some people have other ideas or just don’t care that much.

I talked to two students, junior Anthony Prado and senior Makenzie Moore, about their opinions on the crowded hallways. First, I asked Prado how long he thought it should take a student at our school to walk to class.

“Right now we’re fine with six minutes,” Prado said. Then, I asked him how long it usually took him to get to class.

“Like four or five minutes,” he said. Even though he thought students had plenty of time to traverse between classes, he did think that “the hallways are very crowded,” and that “Students should stop standing in the middle of the hallways and just go to class.”

Prado’s responses were interesting because he thinks that there was no problem with time getting to class, but that the hallways are still too crowded. Maybe some students just don’t like all of the socializing.

In contrast, Moore felt it shouldn’t take that long to get to class.“With the size of our school, It should only take about three minutes,” Moore said.

When I asked how long it took her to get to class, she said “about seven or eight minutes.” Moore then told me her opinion and solution all at once.

“I do think the hallways are too crowded, and I think it would help if they separated the classes’ passing periods,” she said. “Freshmen/sophomores going to class at one time and juniors/seniors going at another, it’d be a lot less crowded.”

Moore’s suggestion for fixing the problem is really interesting, though. Separating the times that each class travelled in the hallways would give student plenty more time between classes; however, that could cause a lot of problems with socializing, which I know some students wouldn’t be happy about. Some underclassmen are best friends with or related to or even dating upperclassmen. It would also complicate the bell schedule and release time of every class, mixed-grade-level classes would be so complicated, none of it would work with the way high school is.

I already suggested making sure students stay on the right side of the hall, but I feel like that wouldn’t be enough. So, I’m asking everyone: if the hallways are too crowded, then how could it be fixed?