Opinion: Crowded Bus Ramp at Carter Highschool, Is There a Simpler Solution?

Every day after school hundreds of students, from freshmen to seniors all crowd around each other, waiting for their ride home. Student choice, or safety concern? Students don’t seem to pay much mind to this issue, as we are used to crowded hallways, classrooms, and cafeterias. But seeing as most of the students’ buses don’t arrive until after the 3:30 bell, I believe it is a safety concern for almost everyone involved. For one, large, near unsupervised groups of students present numerous problems on their own; such as the risk of fights, vaping, smoking, or PDA. Most of these instances get glanced over just because of the sheer amount of students in one spot, it is difficult for the 2-3 teachers looking over the group to keep these things under control. This issue, however, could be largely solved just from student intervention, such as spreading around the ramp or keeping themselves in groups. Aside from issues of violence or rule-breaking, having so many students in one place outside, with most of them not wearing masks, creates a dangerous environment where COVID can spread quite easily; and thus, again, this issue could be solved, or at least minimized, by student intervention, whether that be by social distancing, or properly wearing their masks. And while some may say this closely packed environment is helpful to make students feel included or help students socialize with each other, but the thing is, students can do this while maintaining an open environment. Students don’t have to be packed together in order to talk. And while these issues could be simply solved by student actions, many students have stated to want more seating options available outside, so that instead of being forced to stand in groups under the sparse places of shade, or the rare walls to lean on, they could spread out somewhat to sit down. So, in all, if students took the action to spread out slightly, or if the school added new seating outside at the bus ramp, student comfort and safety would improve significantly.