Third period: LGI 1.

You rush through the hallways. You weave between your peers. You feel like you’re playing Crossy Road.

But you’re still late—and it wasn’t your fault. It was the people around you.

Bellaire has a problem—we have forgotten how to walk (a link to help, because some of you clearly need to learn).

We’re really cruising through the halls at the zippy pace of one step every 10 seconds, and that’s if we’re moving at all. Half of the time, there’s a complete standstill on the stairs connecting the cafeteria to the second floor. Seriously, it’s like the 610 freeway at rush hour up there.

Traffic caused by slow walking in the hallways harms the student body as a whole. According to an Instagram poll with 113 voters, 92% of Bellaire students have reported being late to class because of slow walkers. This isn’t just something that’s annoying—it’s negatively affecting us and our school in a real way.

When students feel like they’re trapped behind a tortoise, they have to take on the role of a speedy hare. Another Instagram poll with 111 voters revealed that 95% of Bellaire students have felt the need to walk faster to make it to class on time after being stuck behind others.This is a constant issue, with senior Richard Manne claiming he finds himself stuck behind slackers “every single day.”

“The most disruptive slow walkers are when there’s a group of friends walking at 0.2 miles an hour, linking four or five people across the hallway,” Manne said. “You can’t get around them.”

In the end, the hallways are saturated with a mixture of snails and cheetahs, raising many safety concerns. Even personally, I’ve witnessed people run into each other daily, along with others falling up and down the stairs.

Unfortunately, we as a student body have decided to ridicule and blame the fast walkers rather than the root cause of the issue. Whenever I’m running late after being stuck behind some people playing the human knot and picking up my pace to compensate for it, I feel some strange looks shot at me. Manne shares similar sentiments, stating that occasionally his friends “make fun of him because they see him speed walking in the hallway and dodging through traffic.”

If the slugs of Bellaire simply consider how their walking pace impacts those around them and decide to make a change, three major issues will be solved—students will have a significantly easier time getting to their classes on time, the hallways will be safer and fast walkers will be able to slow their roll and thus face less criticism.

Everyone can help change Bellaire for the better, even with just one small step.