With frustration comparable to the rush hour traffic of Highway 93's construction zones, students of Flathead High School must prepare daily to embark on that ever-so-treacherous journey through the dreaded "senior hall."
"It's horrible," said senior Hilary Diede. "People stand right in the middle and talk; they're totally oblivious to people trying to walk around them."
So why would so many seniors give life and limb to have a locker in senior hall? And why would any junior or sophomore want to keep a locker amid all that chaos? Maybe it's the central location, maybe the seniors had their lockers stolen two years ago, or maybe it's just a matter of tradition.
"It causes a lot of problems when juniors and sophomores are assigned to those lockers," said senior Heidi Broadbent. "It's a tradition and the lockers should go to the seniors."
So why not just let the seniors have the lockers? Acc
ording to principal Cathy McDevitt, it is not only a matter of tradition but also of hazing underclassmen by territorial seniors.
"It's tradition to intimidate and I don't agree with it," said McDevitt.
According to vice-principal Don Hatch, a large part of the congestion in senior hall is due to each individual locker having three or four students in it. Because the seniors all want their lockers in the hall, each of the lockers has more than one student in it; sometimes there are up to five students in each.
One solution that has been discussed is removing all or some of the lockers in the hall to create more space. There are a number of lockers that are unused on the half floors that could be renovated and put to use. However, because of budget problems that is not likely in the near future, said Hatch. "If w
e had the space to move all of the lockers out of that hall we would,'' said McDevitt. Moving all of the lockers out of senior hall would solve a lot of problems concerning overcrowding and intimidation but many students agree with senior Brian Brekke:
"There would be an new senior hall. It would just cause problems."