Overcrowding Becomes More Apparent at TC
Alexis Larsen
For many of the past years T.C. has been over capacity, but this information is not new. Especially, since the start of the 2018-19 school year, the hallways have seemed especially crowded.
The six minute passing time between each period has gone from a pleasure to a hassle due to the increasingly large classes entering the T.C. Williams main campus.
The 2007 rebuild of T.C. was built to hold a max capacity of 2766 students. The current enrollment for T.C. is 3754 students which is 988 students over the building capacity. One reason for the large size of T.C. is because it is the only high school in Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS).
In the past years, during the passing periods there have been enough time to talk to friends, use the restroom, get some water, etc. But this year, there seems to be virtually no time to do any of the latter because of the traffic in the halls. Junior Jack Harwood said, “Especially the stairway between the B hallway, it has become a lot more packed which adds a couple more minutes to get down [stairs].”
Specifically this year the stairways have been significantly more crowded. They are a major safety hazard, and are almost always backed up to a degree where the student becomes aware of the fact that it should not take this long to to move floors. Senior Grace Salmons said, “I would say there is an increase in congestion on the stairways and it is really hard because it is like standstill traffic since everyone is going different directions.” Senior Emma Lundgren, “Even in the stairwells that do not get a lot of traffic, you can definitely tell that they are more crowded.”
One reason for the backup could be that the doorways are not large enough to fit the amount of students attempting to enter and exit the floors. Another factor that may explain why the staircases have increased could be a result of the rearrangement of the class subjects. Many of the large, required classes are found on the B Wing increasing the amount of students on that side of the school.
The hallways have also increased but not nearly as bad as the stairways. Salmons said, “The hallways are not as bad as the stairwells but they are still pretty cramped.” Overall, there has seemed to be an increase in students in hallways, especially compared to the past year. Junior Barclay Rayome said, “The hallways are usually pretty bad but I feel like this year especially is really crowded.”
The scary thing is that every year the class sizes have been getting increasingly larger. Unless we take action now, T.C. will physically not be able to hold everyone. Now the question is – what can we do to fix this problem?
There has been an ongoing debate within the city for several years over what should be done to fix the overcrowding at T.C. Some people have suggested that there be an addition onto the Minnie Howard Campus. Others have requested that ACPS builds a second high school, although this comes with a lot more problems on its own.
Whatever the result of this issue may be, I do know that this is something that the City and School Board need to start taking action now.
