Overcrowded, Overfilled, and Overflowing

This year there are over 150 more freshman than there should be, and it’s causing issues.

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Busier hallways, longer lunch lines, and classes filled to the brim with students.

Every year, new freshmen come to PHU which add to the population of the school and the past couple years there have been more than the previous school years.

This year there are almost 750 freshmen when in the past there were only around 600.

Getting to class was already difficult for students because of crowded hallways. Now with added students, the halls are busier than before.

This can cause students to arrive late to their next class.

“The stairs in any building have people coming up and down and it’s really hard to get to class sometimes, especially if people are socializing,” sophomore Gorgina Toma (‘21) said.

With more students come longer lunch lines and a more crowded cafeteria. Even though there are four lunch lines, it still takes students a long time to get their food.

“I feel like the lunch lines are more packed than before, because now it takes me more time to get my lunch,” Marina Halim (‘21) said.

When it comes time to find a seat there is no place to sit and students end up having to sit outside, or in a classroom.

It’s not just the cafeteria that is packed with kids, classrooms are filled to the max with students to the point where teachers have to get extra desks for their room.

“People would be having more side conversations and the teachers wouldn’t get anywhere with their teaching if they have to stop the class every two minutes,” freshman Mervena Adly (‘22) said.

Having more kids in the room could impact the learning environment for an individual. There could be more distractions that interfere with their concentration.

For example, students may get distracted due to increase in movement in the classroom or when taking notes and there is talking.

Having more students than the limit in a class, may also affect the teachers’ way of teaching, they may get stressed or overwhelmed.

“I couldn’t do anything in class because there weren’t enough computers for everybody,” computer teacher Jill Lord-Shelby said, “I was very cranky because I couldn’t actually teach the students.”

Having extra students affects more than the hallways, lunch lines and classrooms in the school, it also affects students’ focus and teachers’ ability to teach.