By Maddie Ambrose
The start of second semester is upon us and for most it is a time of celebration. Seniors embark on their final semester of high school, freshmen are just starting to realize what high school is, and sophomores and juniors continue to care about their grades too much. But the second semester parties were forced to end early when members of the student body received one fateful email declaring the closure-but-not-closed hallway procedure to be implemented at Deerfield High School this semester.
This past semester there has been an increase in complaints about hallway activity. Teacher and fig-lover Mary Carpenter said, “One day last semester, I could hear a boy in the hallway breaking up with his girlfriend. That was obviously more interesting than what I was teaching, so none of my students paid any attention to my lecture on economics in back-country China.”
It is complaints such as Ms. Sharpe’s that have caused for this new policy change. However, what goes unnoticed by many administrators is that it displaces some of DHS’s most loved and least known clubs. Clumping Addicts Anonymous holds meetings in the hallways every second of every day, and with nearly 1000 members at Deerfield High School and 1003 members worldwide, the news of the closed-but-not-actually-closed hallways means that CAA will have to meet at the used-to-be-blocks, or worse—an E-Hall lecture room. Other clubs, such as Vent Talkers USA, who are responsible for all of those half-heard conversations that filter into the classroom through the locker vent, to the Tumbleweed Association of Deerfield High School and the Pacific Northwest, will all have to adapt to the new hallway policy, trying to accomplish their usual tasks while having a destination in mind.
When asked for clarification as to what a destination was, Dean James responded, “It can be a locker, but not if you plan to hang out at it. But if you go to the WERCS, then you can hang out there. It’s a fine line really. Like, a destination might be M-Hall. Wait, no, a destination can’t just be a hallway. Can it? …Put your cell phone away! Oh, now we allow those. There is nothing to see here!”
On the plus side, this will promote learning. So…that’s always cool.
