Picking up the pace
Students walk through the hallways to their second block class after lunch. Hallways are seemingly cramped with students trying to get back to class after having 25 minutes out of the classroom for lunch.
October 15, 2019
When it comes to attendance at West, staff and administration ensures students get to their classes on time. It is now harder for students to skip with policies such as lock outs and sweeps that were instilled the previous year. Although these policies are working, the sweeps have some students starting to wonder whether five minutes is enough for passing time.
Out of ten classes surveyed, 146 students agreed that they felt five minutes was not enough time to use the bathroom and/or stop at their locker. About 62 percent of those students said that they purposely do not use the restroom and/or go to their locker out of concern of being swept.
Although some students and teachers believe five minutes is not enough, former West High student and Associate Principal Charlie Driscoll disagrees.
“That five minutes worked for us, using the restroom, getting to class, and back in the day we didn’t carry backpacks so we had to go to our lockers to get our next thick book,” Driscoll said. “Most students make it on time, so that’s why we’ve implemented all these procedures to ensure that the students who aren’t as punctual, we’ll say, can get to class on time.”
Sophomore Megan Dunn, along with the other 146 students, agree that five minutes just isn’t enough. For Dunn her first block is band, where in most cases they don’t get to pack up their instruments until the bell rings, and her advisory is all the way in the math hallway.
“For the first week or two that we had just advisory, I was probably late like four times each week,” Dunn said.
Though most students want extended passing time, former social studies teacher and current substitute teacher Joseph Gross thinks that too much time could potentially be worse. He says kids will get too caught up in conversation and that the extra time would be useless.
“Whether it’s three minutes or five, kids will always want more time,” Gross said.
Although Gross is against the extension of passing time, he does believe that kids who have classes that are further away or need to use the restroom, should be excused if they end up a little late.
“If you’re in the bathroom and they announce a sweep, you can’t control that, and I think most staff here are understanding of that,” Gross said.
