Have you ever been ghosted by an elevator? Maybe it’s just a North Atlanta thing. Still, regardless of the chances of arrival being fifty-fifty, you’ll find the hallways packed with hopeful students praying those silver doors will open. And if they do, then comes the battle for a place inside. Students will push, be pushed, and even get kicked in the struggle to secure a spot. With so much competition, some students inevitably don’t make it, and are forced to hike the stairs—risking a potential tardy. At least they can say they got their workout in.
These surging crowds are often the reason behind why many students avoid the elevators all together. Seeing over a dozen people huddled in front of the very elevator you’re attempting to catch is discouraging to say the least. Altogether it’s intimidating, especially to students new to the campus. One freshman, Jenna Justi, refuses to take the elevators for that reason exactly, despite having an eight floor gap between two of her classes. “The elevators are too packed for my liking,” Justi said. I feel claustrophobic because of all the people around them.”
These problems are not new to North Atlanta. Students encountered similar issues last year, and the bar has been astronomically low for a while now. Most were convinced that the elevators would have been fixed over the summer, but some have arrived to the conclusion that they’ve gotten even worse. Eleventh grader Naomee Tiebi is very familiar with the school and is one such believer. “It’s worse,” she said. “I’ve seen some buttons that used to work last year that don’t anymore.”
This isn’t only an inconvenience to those who just want to avoid the stairs. Unexcused tardies have much stronger consequences this year, with punishments like ISS and OSS added to the equation. Many students have at least a six floor gap between classes. They can’t dawdle, unless they’re willing to accept the tardy. Ideally, considering how packed the hallways are, they would take the elevator. However, the elevators are no better, and the time it takes to wait for their arrival is simply too unpredictable. In sophomore Sophia Makovetska-Towe’s experience, they either take too long to come or are too filled to hop on. “Whenever I wait a while, I have to choose whether to wait longer or run up the stairs, which causes me to sometimes be late,” Makovetska-Towe said.
Whether from the prevalence of overcrowding, tardies, or hurried jogs up the stairwells, it’s clear that the North Atlanta elevator system could use some improvement. It’s certainly helpful when it works well, but it’s a difficult feat to manage the school’s massive student body. With luck, something will be done to address the crowding and late arrivals in the near future. However, until then, NAHS students will just have to get used to being ghosted every once in a while.
