On Tuesday, Nov. 10 during fourth lunch, students approached the mini-rotunda (E2), took one look, turned around and walked away. Eleven teachers patrolled the usually rowdy, congested intersection. Upstairs, three more stood guard at the intersection of the math, foreign language and English hallways.

   While most students avoided their usual routes, senior Mason Bertrand stopped to question math teacher Paul Bohlen on the second floor.

   “You can’t sit along these lockers,” Bohlen said. “Kids are afraid to go to their lockers because you guys are sitting here, and we’re not tolerating it anymore.”

   As Bertrand proceeded to argue with Bohlen’s label of the behavior as “bullying”, Dan Stoll of Special Services looked on with frustration.

   “This is an eyewitness account,” he said. “There’s a lack of respect. Students feel they need to argue and escalate every conversation.”

   This perceived lack of respect is not limited to teacher-student interactions.

   “We talked to some kids this weekend who are terrified to walk through [E2],” Anatomy teacher Jo Huntsinger said. “Kids are getting their lives threatened for grazing another kid’s backpack.”

  Other teachers noted problems the E2 congestion has caused. History teacher Valerie Schrag said the noise level in E2 has disrupted the classroom, and students have been rude and unresponsive when she asked them to stop. Para-professional Matt Anderson said tardies are at an all-time high.

   Teachers compared notes, and engineering teacher Charlie Lauts sent an email around encouraging teachers to monitor behavior more closely.

   “I feel like I need to protect LHS students,” Lauts said. “It’s a small group making life miserable for the [vast] majority. We are doing this out of respect for the kids who follow the rules.”

    Assistant principal Jan Gentry said she was unaware that teachers planned to police the hallways until Nov. 10. She declined further comment, as she said she had to “be active in dealing with the problem.”

   Math teacher Pam Fangohr said teachers were worried about the bullying in the hallways and death threats made to students and teachers, and after the email from Lauts, they decided to take matters into their own hands.

“With cell phones and other problems in the hallways, many of us [teachers] approached the administration about it,” Fangohr said. “We said the building is not being maintained; the environment is not conducive to learning. Things went to a department head, and Lauts’ email sparked it.”

   Many students are grateful for the change in hallway behavior that has already begun.

“I just wish this had started at the beginning of the year,” senior Kiera Shorter said.

  Others are frustrated, claiming that passing periods are the only times students can socialize with friends, and teachers are infringing on that right.

  The teachers are not backing down, however.

“This is not a game anymore,” Bohlen said. “It’s a matter of student safety.”

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