Stay in Your Lane

– Dylan Campbell, Reporter

Mandan High School allows space in its building for hallways serving as the walkway in which students navigate the school. Through these halls, students are expected to arrive from class to class within five minutes. However, if students fail to meet the five minute deadline, they are consequently marked as tardy for class. I have been a victim of this rule, not as a result of lacking effort, but students’ inability to walk sensibly.

As I race to class in an attempt to erase a potential tardy on my attendance record, I am met with all types of dysfunction in the hallway.

The line of students who crowd the hallway as they line up for the breakfast cart, the clusters of students that stand still in spaces of heavy foot traffic, and the students who trudge at the pace of a whale’s resting heart rate. Additionally, the students who walk in a horizontal line, which requires a game of red rover in order to move past. The students who I slam into while making a right turn, because they could not stay on the right side of the hallway, or better yet, the stampede I’m met with when I climb up the stairs after the lunch bell rings.

Is this problem that big of a deal? No. However, it’s infuriating to know these problems have such a simple solution.

Majority of high school students have a driver license, and their driving knowledge should be applicable to the hallway. Well, except the people who park in the no-parking zone in front of the yellow fencing adjacent to the brave center.

Also, the car that clearly protrudes out of the other no-parking zone next to the corner of the brave center’s lot. Then, there’s everyone who has ever been featured on the Instagram account, @mandan_high_parking.

Come to think of it, most high school students have been in a car accident. Maybe this hallway concept is not so simple to grasp after all.

Do not worry, I will preach this process to you. First, when you are walking in the hallway, maintain the flow of traffic. Next, make sure to keep to the right, especially when turning. After that, make sure you’re not idle in the passing lane. When you go through the drive-thru, steer the line towards the exit of the school. Finally, when going up or downhill make sure you are not drifting into other people.

Additionally, park between the lines. This is not correlated to the hallway, but I figured I would get it in while I have your attention.