It’s early morning and half asleep students have six flights of stairs to climb. Someone opens the elevator using their pass; the opportunity is right there. Is it okay to take it?
Often, when a dozen students pile onto the elevator, the ratio of students who use the elevator to students who need the elevator is off.
According to the school nurse, Mary Johnson, students who can justify using the elevator are students who need it.¨[They] need assistance getting to a floor because they’re unable to walk up the stairs or down the stairs,” said Johnson.
Some students with passes don’t mind when others use the elevator without a proper reason, as long as it isn’t crowding out the people who need it.
“I think it’s fine because it’s a lot of flights of stairs, as long as it’s not so crowded that someone who actually needs the elevator can’t get on,” said Maja Diettrich-Kennett, a freshman with an elevator pass.
Johnson said there’s a variety of reasons for why a student might require an elevator pass.
¨Some people use it because they have a lot of anxiety in the hall…there’s so many people using the stairwells and it feels really confined,” said Johnson.
For students who need a pass, there is a simple process to getting one. Diettrich-Kennet describes; “The nurse told me that I needed one and I went to the office and they sent my mom a survey that she filled out.”
Though most of the time it seems harmless to use the elevator, Johnson believes that “The safety of students is jeopardized when others use the elevator”
