THE ECHO

by Edward Crowe

Return of the school year, return of the passing periods.  

For some, such as freshman Gage Armstrong, the passing periods of the high school are a new experience, differing from the ones he found in previous years.  

“It’s a lot more open, just have a lot more time to get places, even though it is a lot harder to get some places,” said Armstrong.  

One thing that presented itself when traversing through the hallways is how cramped they can get, which freshman August Gillian noted as different from his time at Avon Middle School North.  

“There’re some hallways that get a little too tight when the first passing period starts,” said Gillian. 

Another thing that some mention is the students in the hallways themselves, in which junior Noah Johnson notes that their movement and behavior adds extra difficulty to getting to class.  

“Well, yeah, a lot of people don’t understand how hallways work, and will go vertical when they need to go horizontal, or vice versa,” says Johnson. “I hate giant lines and people who crawl their way to class.”  

Along with the students in the hallway, the distance between classes can also be a problem for some students, such as junior Cameron Cutshaw.  

“When my class is on the other side of the school, I’m always late,” said Cutshaw.  

As for me, I end up having to travel large stretches of the school during passing periods, and I wondered how long it takes me to get to classes so far apart. I decided to do two trials on seven-period days to figure out how long it takes, on average, to get to my classes.  

After gathering my data, I found that, on average, the shortest time it took for me to arrive to class was from second to third period, taking over three and a half minutes. The longest it took me to arrive was for fourth to fifth period, taking nearly five and a half minutes. This means I should have enough time to get to all my classes, but I have little room for delay.  

In cases such as from fourth to fifth, I end up arriving just before the bell rings. Having to stop to use the bathroom or get something I left behind could result in me being late. 

I also wanted to see how much other students affected my results. For this I focused on the upstairs hallway that connects E-hall to D-hall, a heavily congested area in my experience. Going from fifth to sixth period, I wanted to record how much time it took for me to get through that area and compare it to how long it took to get to my class overall.  

After gathering my data. I found that, out of the five minutes it takes to get to 6th on average, it takes nearly a minute and a half to get through that section alone. This means that at least a little over one-fourth of the passing period is dedicated solely to getting through that area.  

As for that section, senior Mallory Chenowith noted its congestion leading to difficulties getting through.  

“Right here in this hall, specifically, it’s really hard since a bunch of people are just like merging into one specific square,” said Chenowith. 

While his classes are far apart, senior Carsen Church noted that he makes it on time despite the distance due to moving quickly and avoiding traffic.  

“I feel like I walk fairly fast and I don’t really get stuck in traffic,” said Church. “They’re far apart, but I’m able to get there.”  

As well as the behavior of the students, Cutshaw also mentioned how sidetracking during passing periods resulted in him being late.  

“I got to use the restroom in my passing periods. That’s also why I’m late,” said Cutshaw.  

So overall, while I was able to get to all my classes on time, the long distance between classes combined with such crowded hallways made my passing period experience a struggle.  

“They need to fix that. I don’t know how they fix that. I’m not the one doing things, but they got to see how to,” said Cutshaw on the classes being so far apart.