Tallwood High School has a problem with the traffic flow in the hallways. There have been an abundance of students being pushed, bumped into, and even tripped in the hallways. 

Students report dealing with peers who will stop randomly to talk to friends, stand in the middle of the walkways on their phones or waiting for their peers, or walk very fast or extremely slow.

“Many people don’t know what the right side of the hallway is, many people walk slow, and many people push,” said Summer Oden, Tallwood High School journalism student. 

Tallwood has multiple staircases to reach the second floor. Those are the absolute worst areas, according to many. Students tend to be either slower or faster on staircases, which can lead to possible accidents.

There are certain sides where one can go up or go down to keep the traffic going; however, not everyone follows that, which could lead to a collision.

“From my first to second block it’s really crowded at the stairs,” says Greta Kidd, Tallwood High School Student. 

When interviewing Mr. Shaheen Soorani, Assistant Principal at Tallwood High School, about the traffic here at Tallwood he told us, “In schools with a large population it’s always going to be a challenge…. I’ve been around the district, and it’s a problem or challenge that has existed in every school, especially high schools with 1900 students.”

Having that information, the question starts circulating on how to fix it.

“I would insert traffic lights at every intersection.. they would be quick enough, like 15 seconds,” said Oden. This would give students enough wiggle room to get to their classes and be able to chat with friends while waiting.

“I don’t know if there is a solution when it comes to the architecture of the building and the number of students,” said Soorani

While it comes to the students emotions because of the traffic, many students get upset and angry. When asking Kidd about how she feels, she said, “Yeah because some people are walking in opposite directions from the traffic flow.”

Oden has a different approach to her emotions: “Mentally it is very stressful; as someone who is very anxious with crowds, there tend to be tons of people especially after lunch in the A hall..”

When it comes to students’ attendance to classes, some students have difficulty getting there; however, according to Soorani, there isn’t a negative effect on students: “I would say as someone who does the tardy window everyday, that students are still able to easily get to class within the five minute period” 

The safety of the students is the administration’s number one priority.

“The way they schedule fire drills, and the way they schedule other emergencies. They take in the consideration that hallway traffic exists the most, congestion, and try to direct students the best outs to avoid that,” Soorani said.