This year, a new elevator policy has been introduced to Malden High School. While a nurse’s pass has been a requirement, is now required to scan to call or get on the elevators.
“I love the new elevator policy. I think it’s great; it keeps the kids off the elevator, especially during an emergency when we need the elevator to get from the first floor with a wheelchair to any other floor upstairs,” one of the nurses, Maureen Vona stated.
“I don’t see as many kids on the elevator. As someone who had to use it last year, it sucked having to wait for other kids who don’t need it to get on. Now it seems more efficient,” junior Janiyah Warner stated.
Many students and staff agree that the elevator was being “abused” last year and used by those who could easily use the stairs instead.
“The elevators were used for no good reasons at all. This year, not many students use the elevators, which makes more people use the stairs,” junior Alecia Louigene said.
When the elevators were open to everyone last year, they would often be packed. “The change between the students on the elevator last year compared to this year is significant. Very often I would see students coming out who shouldn’t be in there but I don’t see that anymore,” House Principal Jean Charles said.
Many students did not seem to understand that elevators are important when it comes to emergencies, and if there are too many people using them, nurses cannot get where they need fast enough. “I don’t think we have enough elevators to service all two thousand students, I don’t think we need to either. I think requiring a card to get on the elevator, for the people who really need it is a much better idea,” Charles continued.
Elevator passes are only given out to those with doctors’ notes. At a certain date, the student has to return the elevator pass back to the nurses or the nurses will call up to Mr. Mastrangelo to have it canceled and unable to call the elevator to the floor.
This new elevator policy helps students who have injuries, use wheelchairs, or those with any sort of condition that requires them to use the elevator consistently, to be on time to places they need to be.
“It was a smart and effective change they made, drastically changing the number of students using the elevator to almost 0,” junior Ismail Elbahlawan said.
“I think that we should do more, and we’ve taken an approach this year where we actually use different committees to go over things that we’re trying to change and make better at this school. It allows for more student, staff, and administration involvement and I love the communication. I think we’re going in the right direction,” Charles explained.
“I’m looking forward to seeing us become a better school. I think we have great kids here, it’s awesome. We should keep working in this direction to create a great environment,” Charles concluded.
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