Every Chapman student has inevitably found themselves halfway down their designated hallway when the bell rings, making their run turn to a half gallop, half sprint.

After a few short seconds, a teacher sees them stumbling their way down the hallway and shouts something about tardies. If the student is unlucky, they’ll get detention for it.

It’s no secret that the halls of Chapman are long and the rotunda crowded. When the warning bell rings, it becomes a battle for students to make it to class in just five minutes. 

During COVID, administrators decided to lengthen the time between classes to eight minutes. It was changed back the year after, but there are protests from students wanting to bring it back.

With the Chapman hallways being as wide as airport halls and crowded with more kids than the school can accommodate, it’s common for students to struggle getting from one end of the hallway to the other. With eight minutes between classes instead of five, students would no longer have to push their way between people, run through halls to make it to class, or get tardies for being one step away from the door.

Not only would navigating between classes become less stressful with eight minutes, but bathroom breaks during class would become fewer. 

Currently, prospects of using the bathroom between classes are less likely, as students are trying to make it to class in five minutes. This annoys many teachers, especially those who insist on students using the bathroom before classes, saying that they have more than enough time.

Teachers at the end of long hallways believe differently. With barely enough time to go from the end of one hall to the end of another, students often are seen by teachers sprinting and groaning when the bell rings and they’ve only managed to get halfway down the hall.

Eight minutes, for teachers at the ends of hallways, is basically a necessity. There simply isn’t enough time for anybody to trek from one classroom to the end of a hallway unless they miraculously get next-door classes. 

Many teachers on the four-hundred hallway cannot grant amnesty, via school policy, for students who are late.

The concept seems unimportant, but for students, eight minutes would make all the difference.