Every day, between classes, you can see hallways and stairwells getting jammed up with students, eating away at the three minutes of passing period. Three minutes may seem like a lot of time; when you factor in crowded hallways and staircases, many students are still late to class. School administrators who don’t regularly navigate the halls during passing periods may not understand the struggle of making their way to the next period while trying not to push through people in the jam-packed hallways. 

 12% of surveyed HMHS students said that they are late to at least one of their classes every day, and 89.1% agree that four minutes would be an acceptable amount of time between periods. 

Administrators may argue that teachers will be losing valuable class time, but in reality, teachers are usually waiting for everyone to get to class or setting up their lesson during the first minute, and giving students an extra minute to get to class would benefit them because they’d be able to start their lesson quicker. An extra minute would allow students whose classes are closer in time to visit their lockers and bathroom before the period starts, ensuring they don’t miss any class time. Students whose teachers don’t allow them to use the bathroom during class time could also benefit from the extension, and so would people who have to go from one side of the building to another, using a staircase or ramp, who are often late due to overcrowding.

In short, adding an extra minute to the passing period would benefit all HMHS students by giving them an extra minute to either get to class on time or allow them to go to their lockers or to the bathroom, and a large portion of HMHS students agree.