The halls of Wantagh High School, before homeroom, can only be compared to the mall on Black Friday. Students circle the halls. Little clusters of students grouped by grade sit and stand in the same locations every day, like the lobby, and the benches outside the gym.

It doesn’t matter to anyone where you sit in the school or what you do as long as you’re not obstructing hallway traffic. We’ve all had that moment where you’re standing still in the middle of the hall because someone thinks it’s okay to stop their friend mid hallway and tell them about their day. For those who drive to school, there are designated lanes of traffic to make sure that things run smoothly. It’s the same thing here in Wantagh High School, you walk on either side of the hall and you get to class without a problem, with the exception of the stairs in the English hallway.

With the New Year starting it seems that the freshmen are having difficulty grasping this simple routine, grouping up in a major intersection with no regard to circlers who are trying to pass by no matter how many times you say “excuse me.”

Would the shrill blast of an air horn to school disperse the crowd. “The hallways are for walking, if you want to hang out with your friends go to a classroom,” said junior Lily Newland. “ I’m sick of people standing in front of my locker.” Students’ hallway habits have me wondering if as freshmen we all started out in a group of people awkwardly sprinkled through the hallways.

“You’re in the way, you’re making it difficult for people to get where they need to go, and we say something like ‘you can’t stand in the middle of the hall,” said senior Diana Kimbley. But they just do it out of spite after that.”

My only hope is that as the year continues a sense of courtesy will be instilled in those with a lack of awareness of others, and the groups will slowly split into places that won’t cause traffic on the way to class.