Traditionally, people walk up the stairs according to the sides of the roads we drive on the right side. Walking on the wrong side of the stairway is a growing problem at BMS. This year there are over roughly 1,200 students are at BMS and nearly double the staff in a school designed for a number closer to 800 students. One student walking on the wrong side can throw off course many people, slow traffic and even lead to injury.

So why is this a problem? After the arrival of 6th and 7th grade CMS students, the school has been much more crowded. P.E. Classes are subjected to being in hallways and the cafeteria, schedules have been changed and classes have changed rooms. Even if one person walks up the wrong side of the stairs, it still can be a problem because they could trip one person and start a domino effect. Stairs are a fact of life at Bedford and getting to encores requires lots of people following a guideline that many find easy to forget in a rush to get to class.

“I think that it’s dangerous” said Brian Kurtz, a science teacher in the 6th grade purple pod at BMS, “We drive cars and ride bikes on the right side, so we should walk on the right side.”
Getting the school to use the stairs in an orderly fashion is important to the administration and teachers. After every BCTV show their motto is “Stay to the right,” meaning on the stairwells and the hallways, but do students really understand the growing problem of walking on the wrong side of the stairs?

“There’s less people on the left side,” said Hannah Salpeter, a 6th grader at BMS.

Most student’s reactions are that either it’s easier because there are fewer people or that they just don’t care. Students just want to get to their next period as fast as possible, even if it means walking on the wrong side of the stairs.

“Well, I don’t think it’s mainly a problem because if everyone walks on the same side (left, right) it would not be a big deal. But it is annoying when you go up the stairs and there are people going down the same side. It creates traffic and slows us down,” said Anna Ji, a 6th grader at BMS.