Westside High school currently holds over 2000 students and its packed hallways can present challenges for students when trying to get to class. If you’re not exceptionally tall, getting through this mess of students can be hard. Navigating through these swarms of people is even harder if you have some sort of disability.

For anyone who has every been on crutches or in a wheel chair temporarily, they know how hard it is to get around Westside. Not only with the vast amounts of students in the hallways, but getting up and down the stairs at school is completely out of the question. The only option is hiking your way down to the ends of the school to get to an elevator.

Kari Wilson, a teacher in the special education department is faced with an every day challenge of moving her kids from classroom to classroom during the day with the flood of kids blocking the hallways.

“Many of the kids I work with have sensory issues when they are around a lot of people,” Wilson said. “Most of the times we have to leave five to ten minutes before or after the mod ends.”

Possibly one of the least accessible places for people with disabilities is the lunchroom, as it is swamped during lunch mods.

“The simple act of going to get lunch is something that is very hard for my kids to do, it is a madhouse in there,” Wilson said […] A lot of the time we just send someone down with a cart to grab six or seven lunches at a time to avoid the crowds. The kids then lose the learning experience of going and picking out their own lunches,” Wilson said.

Guinevere Miles, a senior at Westside is on a motorized scooter. She has to figure out how to get from class to class on time everyday while weaving in and out of students in the hallways.

“I feel like certain students care more about socializing then getting to class and clearing the hallways to make things easier for everyone,” Miles said.

Overall, the crowded hallways present challenges for every student at Westside and nothing will change unless action is taken.