It seems like getting to the bus at the end of the day is like “mission impossible”. Dodging backpacks, getting sprayed with perfume, and averting your gaze from overly affectionate couples saying goodbye are the typical obstacles to navigating the hallways nowadays. Friend groups block off hallways and getting anywhere on time is a real challenge.

Slow walkers are everywhere and hallway etiquette has long been forgotten. Students are tired of putting up with messy halls and need to see a change. 

“It makes me so angry,” expressed Norah McCabe, ’25, “There’s an obvious hallway etiquette people ignore because they just want to sit and chat.”

It’s time to pick up the pace and get moving. 

Students are taught the basic rules of walking in hallways in elementary school. Walk in a single-file line, keep to your right, and focus on getting to the destination. While it’s not expected for people to follow these rules exactly, they should still be used as a guideline. 

Hallway etiquette is simple. South Blueprint explains how walkers should “yield to wheelchairs and people carrying equipment” because both have limited mobility and “it’s common decency to allow people with disabilities (physical or otherwise) to go ahead of you.”

Walkers should also refrain from blocking doors, stairwells and avoid stopping in the middle of the hall.

The Magpie points out students should keep the hallways clean, keep a considerable pace, and follow staff directions. If asked, take off a hood or take out your headphones. Rules are in place for a reason and teachers are just as tired of yelling at students as students are of getting yelled at. 

With that in mind, people need to be aware of their surroundings. If you see people are trying to walk and you’re in the way, then move. If you bump into someone, apologize, help them pick anything that fell on the floor, and then get a move on. 

“If you’re waking you should be on the right side, it’s like a road,” explained Ben Pilcher ’25.

Hallway courtesy has many of the same rules that drivers use on the road. This applies to allowing people who are trying to leave a room into the flow of traffic, allowing people to make turns, and so forth. 

The Cornell Daily Sun splits problematic hallway users into three categories: the stoppers, the groups, and the scrollers. 

The stoppers “are the people who will freeze all of a sudden, mid-stride, with literally no warning. They will simply stop, usually causing people who are behind them to almost have a collision.”

Stopping to check a phone or a text is not an appropriate reason to block the hallway. The Cornell Daily Sun explains this perfectly. When people are driving and you receive a text or realize you went the wrong way, you wouldn’t slam the brakes and cause a pile up accident. Instead, you would wait until you reach your destination or pull over to check the messages. 

“One time I was walking down the hallway when a girl in front of me saw her boyfriend. She decided it would be a great idea to stop in the middle of a busy hallway and jump on him. In the process she kicked me so hard in the gut I thought I was going to be sick,” shared Kiara Camacho ’25.

The groups are exactly what it sounds like: people who stop or walk in large groups that take up the entire hallway. 

Everyone likes to chat with their friends, especially if the halls are the only chance you see each other. There’s still no need to form a wall that blocks off people walking in either direction or to create an obstacle innocent bystanders have to avoid. We’re in school, this isn’t “Mario Kart.” 

“Whenever walking to class takes more than two minutes I get beyond frustrated,” shared Rhea Webster ’25. “I’m walking and then I suddenly am just standing still because there are three layers of five friend groups blocking the entire hallway. I just cannot get around them.”

It’s not hard to multitask and talk while walking in a uniform group that doesn’t take up the whole hall. Find a comfortable pace that allows you to stick with your friends and stay out of everyone else’s way. If you really feel the need to stop and talk then find a place that won’t be a disturbance to everyone else. The places not to stop and chat include: in front of doors, at the end of hallways, in the middle of hallways, and anywhere you disrupt the flow of traffic. 

This seems to be the most significant concept for students to grasp. While kids are trying to get to the buses, the halls are a mess. People stop and chat in clumps that build up and cause an ocean of confusion and annoyed kids. Either stick to the sides or move so people can reach their bus without getting body slammed.

The last of these categories are the scrollers. These are people that are so focused on their phone they block the hallway or walk slower than a sloth. There are people who can genuinely multitask and scroll on their phone while keeping an appropriate pace, but some students lack this ability.  It seems like “the people walking painfully slowly along the sidewalk almost always have a phone in hand, heads down as they focus all their concentration on their screen instead of their feet.”

There are many other categories of walkers who disrupt the flow of hallway traffic, but the top honorable mention is hallway couples. We get it, you’re young and in love, but school is not the place for public display of affection (PDA).

“The amount of PDA in this school is crazy. Back in the Junior High everyone would yell at kids for doing PDA and I think that needs to be brought back,” stated Sophia Nieves ’26.

No one wants to see couples getting far too touchy in the halls. Much like the group category, you can simply move to the side of the hall where it doesn’t disrupt everyone else. Holding hands is perfectly appropriate, but we’re in school and there is a thick line between appropriate PDA and stuff that makes everyone uncomfortable.

While it can be incredibly frustrating when people walk at the pace of a snail, there’s no need to run to your classes. Everyone has a place to be so walk at a swift, consistent pace. If everyone does this then getting to classes should be easy. 

This shouldn’t be as hard as it is, but some people really struggle with basic hallway manners. Instead of being the problem, be a part of the solution.