Morgan is facing a dilemma. Should students who are physically able be allowed to take the elevator? Students every day at Morgan, at the start of school, at the end of lunch, or in between classes use the elevator.  In the Morgan handbook, there are no rules on elevator usage, which is why many students feel that the elevator isn’t against Morgans’s code of conduct.

Junior David Mantilla, former president of the junior class, decided to bring this topic up to student government last week. Dave is in favor of having all students use the elevator because it supports the idea of fairness. He said, “The elevator was a great addition to the school and should be used by everyone.” Dave acknowledges people’s concerns that unnecessary use of the elevator causes delays, but he said, “It doesn’t take that long for the elevator to go up and down. I’ll wait, and you wait.”

Senior athlete Katie Martin, who broke her ankle during the basketball season, had to take the elevator but still has similar opinions to Dave. Although she is a person who needed the elevator, she doesn’t mind sharing it with other students who are physically able. She said, “I think it’s a great little tool.” She was not concerned about able-bodied people using the elevator. She said, “It didn’t bother me at all because even if I was late to class, I was hurt and my teachers already knew I was going to be a little longer.” Also in agreement with Dave, Katie expressed that fairness means to sharing the elevator with all students.

An unscientific survey of randomly selected Morgan students reveals that the majority of students (10:7) think everyone should be able to take the elevator. English teacher and queen of the PawPrint, Leslie Chausse thinks that students who are physically able should not be allowed to take the elevator. She recently suffered a knee injury. She believes it slows down the process of getting around for injured people. She said, “I would often have to wait long periods of time, and when the door opened, sometimes five, six, or seven students came tumbling out.” It became unsafe with so many students in the elevator causing both a long wait, safety concerns, and an overused elevator. The elevator wasn’t built to carry so many people every day, multiple times a day.

Principal Keri Hagness explained the elevator policy: Students who are injured must receive a pass to be allowed to take the elevator, otherwise they shouldn’t be on it because it causes both long waits and takes away from the people who actually need it. She explained teachers are allowed to take the elevator because many of them have injuries as well.

After listening to everyone’s opinions, we think that all students should be able to take the elevator, hurt or not. The elevator is a useful tool and shouldn’t be limited to a specific group of people because all people at Morgan are responsible enough to respect the elevator and its privileges. We are in agreement that it can take a while, but as Dave said patience is key.