By Claire Burnett, Features Editor
On March 29th, the Board of Education made the executive decision to remove all staircases in the building and replace them with slides next week. They made the sudden change because the hallway traffic has reached an all-time high and our school needs some sort of change.
The hallway traffic during the 2021-2022 school year has gotten to a point where students are regularly late to their classes because there is standstill traffic in the hallway. Students often find themselves stopped for minutes at a time on their way to class. Junior Emily Williams remarked “This year the traffic in the hallway is so bad that it takes me forever to get to class. The school definitely needs to do something to stop the constant traffic.”
Students across River Hill have mixed feelings about the school’s decision. Some students are thrilled to slide down to class, while others have concerns about the absence of stairs. Junior Joe Johnson commented, “I’m really excited for the new slides because I can get to class a lot faster and have fun during school.”
However, other students, like freshman Tim Smith disagree, stating, “A lot of people think it’s a good idea, but do they realize that they have to get upstairs somehow?” Tim raises an important point, that with the absence of stairs students will have to climb up the slides. Another student, sophomore Billy Brown , added, “I don’t want them to get rid of the stairs. If I have to go upstairs, I’ll just end up shuffling on the slide and not going anywhere.”
The school has decided to try out the slides for the time being. If it doesn’t work out, they have a few other plans in place, including escalators and ladders. For the alternative plans, students also have differing opinions. Senior John Walker shared, “I don’t really think that the slides are a good thing but the ladders are even worse. I can’t imagine having to climb up a ladder to get to class.”
Despite River Hill’s varying opinions, school administrators believe that this new method of traveling to class will be beneficial to the school and they will be installed next week.
April fools!