Picture yourself in a hallway, walking casually to class, and you stop for a moment to say hi to someone or maybe get a drink. Then, suddenly, you hear the warning bell and then the intercom – with that dreaded voice call out, “At the sound of the bell, teachers lock your doors; we’re having a whole-school hall sweep?”

After you hear those words, you must prepare for a stampede of teens running in the hall, trying not to be late and get detention. You must then decide to either run and join the stampede or just take the detention. This is not fair, and it is not realistic.

Hall sweeps are dangerous, unnecessary, and overly dramatic. Hall sweeps are dangerous because, while students are running in the hall trying not to be late, they are bumping and knocking down others – including teachers.  These accidents are not entirely the students’ fault and are not happening because they don’t like the individuals or that they did it on purpose; it is because they are trying not to be late.

Hall sweeps are unnecessary because, when a student is late, the teacher can just mark him/her tardy and give detention like most teachers already do when tardiness happens.

Hall sweeps – lastly – are dramatic because teachers, unable to just give their own detention, must lock the door and keep kids from entering.  The administration saying “lock your doors” seems a little extreme to me.

The solution: more time.  We wouldn’t need hall sweeps if we had extra time to pass to class. We all know how much traffic there is in the halls, and how difficult it is to get from the 1^st floor to the 3^rd, or from one side of the building to other, and how time-consuming it is. I know, how at the end of the day when it’s the end of 6^th period and we have to go to 7^th period, it takes me 4 minutes to get there. It’s not because I waste time. It’s because I have to beat traffic and go from the first floor to the third floor. If we had 7 minutes instead of 5 minutes, then all would be able to make it to class safely and on time, but that would mean we would either have school end at 2:20 or cut lunch down by 10 minutes. They would provide students with extra time to get to their next class and maybe take care of their personal business, like using the bathroom or getting some water, because some teachers don’t let them do that in class; they tell them that they should’ve done it before the bell.

Another reason we have hall sweeps is that the school has simply too many kids in the halls; kids who would rather walk around the building than be in class.  However, kids are still going to be late even if the administration extends the time, and when they do teachers can give them detention or call security  on them.

The truth of the matter is hall sweeps are dangerous, unnecessary, and dramatic.  We need to find a solution to this predicament before someone gets seriously hurt because of these unnecessary hall sweeps.