Many students arrive at school before the bell rings at 8:05 a.m.  For these students, there are numerous places where they can wait in the morning.  However, this year, a new policy was enacted at Schreiber: students are not allowed to leave the designated morning waiting areas between 7:45 a.m. to 8 a.m.

Even if you were doing something as simple as putting your sports bag in your gym locker, once you enter the gym, you are not allowed to leave again until 8 a.m.  Students are forbidden to leave until 8 a.m. from both the auditorium and cafeteria as well.

It would seem that the purpose of this is to prevent students from wandering and crowding the hallways.  However, this new rule incentivizes students to not go to these morning waiting places at all.  If they are not allowed to leave until exactly 8 a.m., why come at all?  This leads to more students walking the halls and waiting outside classrooms, as they do not want to be stuck in the auditorium, the cafeteria, or the gym.

This policy forces students to accept that they will not be allowed to leave at any point before 8 a.m. before entering one of these areas. 

This is simply unfair.  If a student is sitting in the auditorium, and then wants to go to the gym instead to sit with friends, why should they not be allowed to?  Or, if a student wishes to leave one of these morning waiting places a little bit early to avoid the crowded halls to reach class on time, they should be permitted to leave.

The school hallways are always extremely packed and this policy only adds to the crowding.  Since students are not allowed to leave the morning waiting areas until exactly 8 a.m., everyone is walking the halls at the same time.  If students were allowed to leave at any time, the hallway crowding would lessen.

Another thing to note is that on some days, the policy is more lenient, and one can leave these places at any time.  On other days, the policy is stricter, and students cannot leave until 8 a.m. exactly.  What is the point of having this policy if it is not being enforced at all times?

Therefore, Schreiber students should be permitted to leave these morning waiting places, such as the cafeteria, the auditorium, and the gym, before 8 a.m.