Students Sick of Standing Outside in the Morning?

The front of West Middle School.

Alyssa Demeester and Elyse Regner

West students despise lining up outdoors before school starts. 

Principal Smiley explains, “Most teachers get to West around 7:30-7:45 because they need to prepare for school in their rooms and they can’t be monitoring kids in the hallways.”

Students should either go into the collaboration station, gym, or cafeteria instead of lining up outdoors. Lining indoors would be just like if we were outside. Since it is just a few teachers monitoring us outdoors, the same teachers could monitor us indoors. 

 Whether we are outside or not, students are still going to do the same things. Students should stand inside because it is warmer and a better place for all students.  

Principal Smiley adds, “Another reason why students stand outside in the morning is that if all 675 of us standing inside in the gym in the morning students would be bringing in all sorts of mud, grass, dirt, and other kinds of things from their shoes from standing outside.” We think that lining up outside is a smart idea to keep the school clean, but we have carpet right as you enter the doors. So as you come in, you could wipe your feet off before entering any further. We know kids who purposely arrive later to avoid having to stand outside in freezing temperatures. 

We also learned that students use to be able to line up indoors before the pandemic started. We need to go back to the old ways!