In the aftermath of the pandemic, hallways have grown increasingly cluttered as students struggle to make their way to classes on time. Instead, they opt to socialize with friends, spending excessive time in the halls.
Despite a marked improvement in the current school year, Principal Chris Mastrangelo noted that changes still needed to be made regarding the school culture around tardiness.
“We talked about at the beginning of the school year, ‘Let’s Make It Happen,’ let’s change the culture. And we are seeing that… one of the ways that we want to build on the momentum of changing is clearing the hallways,” he explained.
In light of this, Malden High is introducing a new hallway procedure starting November 12th to urge all students to arrive at their classes in a timely manner before the bell rings. Its goal is to assist in developing professionalism, fostering a productive classroom environment, and promoting a more responsible school culture.
The procedure uses a disincentivizing approach to prompt students to arrive on time, mandating that all teachers shut their classroom doors when the bell rings. If students arrive to class after the doors close, they will be escorted by a staff member to one of three redirection centers, where their names will be documented before they are escorted back to class. After three tardies, staff will notify students’ caregivers. In addition, bathrooms will be locked for the first and last ten minutes of class to prevent students from skipping class.
Jim Valente, longtime media teacher at Malden High, observed the changes to hallway traffic over the years. He described the hallways as “a lot more concentrated with kids who don’t seem to realize that getting to class is a priority.”
The current issue of students increasingly lingering in the hallways may stem from the pandemic. As social studies teacher Richard Tivnan stated, “Post COVID, there’s a lot more people in the hallways than there was before. There’s a lack of urgency to get to class.”
Another cause may also be that there used to be a different code of discipline, such as sending students to detention for up to several hours after school or sending them home to return the next day with their guardians to explain why they were late. These strict policies would act as deterrents which both Valente and Tivnan said kids responded to quickly. While schoolwide policies, such as Friday detention and several tardies equaling an absence, and teacher policies, such as grade deductions, should keep students from being late, there remains a margin of students still not making it to class on time—an issue that Mastrangelo was concerned may worsen in the coming months.
For both students and teachers, the constant flow of students entering class will often disrupt the learning environment. Teachers plan their classes for the entire duration of class, mapping out structured lessons with plans including the full class roster. “Every time those kids walk in, there’s a distraction to the classes and there’s a distraction to the flow of the lesson. The teacher has to get those kids to catch up to where they’re at,” Mastrangelo explained.
For Valente, it can also be perceived as a level of disregard. “When it becomes habitual, it almost becomes like, ‘Well, I really don’t care.’”
Senior Thalia Louigene noted, “Throughout the years, I think the hallways have gotten a little better. Although some areas still have a lot of traffic, there’s usually a staff in the hallway directing everyone to class. So that’s definitely better than it used to be, but the kids who regularly skip and walk around are still there.” For Louigene, the slow pace of the hallways affects her own ability to get to class on time: “The whole pace of the hallway slows down when there’s traffic, making me late. Also, it’s very annoying when areas are overcrowded when they shouldn’t be.”
These issues, similarly noted by new superintendent Dr. Timothy Sippel, were taken into account when he and Mastrangelo explored methods to guarantee all students arrived to class on time. During his time as principal in California, Sippel had followed the escorting procedure and found it to be effective. After sending out surveys to staff, discussing it with the Student Advisory Board, and gaining positive feedback from the student and faculty advisory board, “we decided to go with it,” Mastrangelo adds.
In anticipating a quick turnaround, he expects that “the first week, that week of November 12th, we might see hundreds of kids being redirected. By the second week, we might be down to 10s, and by the third week, we might be down to fewer because it’s a hassle for everybody.”
This new procedure seems to be welcomed by staff. Tivnan, emphasizes that the hallways have been “way better than it has been the last several years,” and predicts its effectiveness: “I think overall, it’s going to work, and I think it’s going to work fairly quickly, because how many times is a kid going to want to get walked to class by some adult?”
The purpose of “discipline is to teach responsibility and empathy, and it helps you mature,” Valente stated, “We need to do more of that. And I think if kids realize that being in class is important for their education… for their future, I think they’ll realize that the consequence of being left out is bad.”
“I often say to students who are late that the class is missing out on you too; you had stuff to offer, and now they missed out on it. And then there’s that underlying level of respect knowing that this teacher worked hard to plan something for us, and I’m messing it up,” Mastrangelo concluded.
