Front Entrance Crisis

A new controversy has surfaced in the Madison High School Community: the rule regarding entrance to the school strictly through the main doors that took effect first on January 30, 2017. Principal Robertson and Vice Principal Connolly have come to the mutual decision to restrict entry to the school in the morning to the front doors exclusively. Whether it be an effective safety improvement or not, the new rule has proven to be a conflict for those parked the furthest away from the front of the high school.

“I understand why they did it with all of the school shootings that have been happening recently, but there’s two ways to look at the situation. First of all, Madison is a pretty safe town, and we’ve never really had a brush with danger at our school in the past. Secondly, it’s way too much of an inconvenience for people parked in the way back of the lot by the tennis courts and by the gym to have to walk all the way around the building to the main door when there are doors right by their cars,” said junior Erin Salko, who is already 17 and driving. “Right now I park on Ridgedale but I really don’t want to have to go through this everyday next year if I get a bad parking spot. If I’m in the back of the lot, I’ll have to get here earlier than I already do to be on time for first period since the traffic gets so bad. If it were my decision, I would set up some sort of system where students can use their school IDs to swipe into all of the doors, so only people with IDs can get in. The only problem with that is if someone’s ID gets stolen, but again, I really doubt that would be much of an issue.”
A significant number of other MHS students agree with Erin in saying that this new rule is too much of an inconvenience, especially in the winter months when it’s snowing outside or the pavement is icy.