The new Grand Junction High School’s hallways have been incredibly chaotic during passing periods.

While during class hours the hallways are seemingly quiet, passing periods is a completely different situation. The combination of an increase in enrolled students this year and the opening of the new $144.5 million building has caused hallways to be backed up and difficult to navigate.

“If you asked me last year I would have told you the traffic was so bad, but that is nothing compared to this year. Yes, there was traffic last year, but there was also room to breathe. It wasn’t shoulder to shoulder and you didn’t have to fight through a sea of people to enter or exit the stairs,” said GJHS senior Whitney Stortz.

In the first few days of school, students seemed to be uninformed about the side stairwells in each classroom wing, which was making it difficult for students to get from class to class using only the main stairs.

With GJHS currently at about 1780 students, according to GJHS principal Jory Sorensen, it is understandable that there is such traffic during passing periods. For many, it might be difficult to understand why there is so much more hallway traffic now in the new GJHS, compared to the hallway traffic in the old building.

“Being together all in one building is different than having seven different buildings. We have a lot fewer passages, although they’re larger here. It’s a safer environment, but it takes more time with the stairwells,” said Sorensen.

There have also been very noticeable log-jams during fire drills. Students have been concerned about the possible dangers of slow-moving traffic jams on stairways. 

“These were our first fire drills in the building and we’ve learned a lot. I know it does seem crowded, but we are still getting out of the building in 5-6 minutes. Our first drill was over six and our second drill was just over five minutes, so we are getting faster and will continue to do so throughout the year,” said GJHS assistant principal Heather O’Brien.

Announcements have been made encouraging students to spread themselves out evenly throughout the school during passing periods in hopes that hallway traffic will flow better.