Within every five-minute passing period at Coronado, our hallways are filled with slow walkers and excessive amounts of Public Displays of Affection (PDA). This frustrates many students who are just looking to get to class on time and not be grossed out by other students who are handholding, hugging, and kissing their boyfriends or girlfriends.
In a survey taken among Coronado students, 75.4% of students will see PDA every day in the hallways. Lucy Bearman (Class of 2025), simply said, “It’s gross!” Other people react differently, Carson Greene (Class of 2026) claims that he doesn’t “really care what others do. I just ignore them.”
PDA looks different to each person; 16% of Coronado believe that it is wrong to participate in PDA of any kind during the school day whereas 80% believe that handholding and hugging are okay for couples at Coronado. “It’s the kissing that grosses me out. I don’t want to see that walking to class!” Lucy Bearman exclaims. Averie Tucker, (Class of 2024), says that “some PDA is okay, most just make me uncomfortable.”
Not only is it the PDA that frustrates others, but it is also the number of slow walkers; 93.7% of students get stuck behind a slow walker at least once a day. This topic brings up a lot of emotions throughout the student body, Averie Tucker passionately exclaims that “slow walkers deserve to be kicked in the shins.”
It’s hard to please everyone but with a common frustration that seems so simple to fix. Mathias White, (Class of 2024), believes that “if you are a slow walker just walk faster.” The problem with that is the slow students believe that they are just walking normally. An anonymous student at Coronado claims that “there is no reason to run to class. I like to take my time.”
With such differing perspectives on speed and acceptable PDA, the problem is more than just walking faster or enforcing no PDA. With these ideas being relative it is hard to address and fix this problem. Passing periods at schools are designed to give students enough time to fill up water bottles, go to the bathroom, and walk across the campus to get to the next class on time. This is exactly what it does, just under 10% of the school has no problem with the hallways.
