Walking up or down a staircase on the way to class at Walter Johnson can be a very chaotic experience. People shove, going up or down, trying to force their way through the doors as hundreds of students rush to get to class before the bell rings. 

Designated up or down staircases are a good thing to have at WJ. First off, the stairwells at WJ are unfortunately not very wide, meaning there is not a lot of space for people to move both up and down the stairs. The crowding and commotion can lead to a somewhat dangerous environment when some students are pushing up a stairwell while other students are going the opposite way.

Having designated and enforced up/down staircases will mitigate this problem, as it will limit the flow of students in each stairwell to one direction. This will allow for a safer environment on stairs by eliminating the chance of a collision between a student going down and a student going up.

Another reason why up/down staircases are a great system for WJ is because they could actually end up saving time for students on their way to class. Due to the small size of the stairwells, they fill up pretty quickly during the time between classes. People crowd around the bottom, creating large lines and clusters of people both inside and outside of the stairwell. Sometimes you will see hundreds of students pushing up the stairs, and trying to squeeze through the doors to the stairwell.

The flow of traffic is made slower by people going both up and down and running into each other. This leads to students having to wait a good amount of time to simply enter a stairwell, further crowding the hallways and making it harder to get to class on time.

With one-way staircases, there will be less crowding and pushing, reducing traffic congestion, and helping students arrive to class on time. While some may argue that up/down staircases make the school harder to navigate initially, students will eventually figure out what routes they can take. Then, everyone will have an easier commute to class.

A freshman struggles to navigate the maze-like structure of WJ. Looking for a staircase up to the second floor. They eventually stumble upon one…but it’s a down only staircase. Glancing at the time, they realize they only have two minutes left to get to class. Sprinting down the hall, they find a different staircase and hurry up it. They can see their teacher from down the hall, ding, ding, ding…too late.

The school has implemented a down only policy on a couple of the smaller staircases at WJ. However, the down only staircases are inconvenient for student mobility and are unnecessary since people have enough room to go up and down them at the same time. 

WJ is a large school with classes spread out from the portables all the way to the music rooms on the other side of the building. This leaves students with extremely far walks between classes. Adding to the chaos of these transits are the down only staircases.

A student may have to take an entirely different route to find a staircase they can go up, adding an extra minute or more to their travel. Although this most likely will not make the student late to their next class, it can still be inconvenient for them when having to pack up and leave class as fast as possible. This extreme hurry may result in the student missing concluding comments, or announcements about homework and deadlines by their teacher as they rush to beat the bell.

The down only policy might seem necessary due to the small width of certain staircases, however students are still able to pass single file through these areas. The staircases are wide enough for two students to stand shoulder to shoulder, meaning they are able to move past each other in different directions. 

Other staircases that are wider have even quicker student movement through them, but that does not mean that these narrow staircases are not efficient enough. With cooperation, students could effectively move up and down the tight staircases, making overall transit around the school easier and forever getting rid of the down only staircase policy.