Human Sacrifice

Pushing, shoving, complaining and whining. Students in the Albert Lea High School hallways and lunch line are all too familiar with this.

 Students are constantly on the move, whether it be on their way to their next class or to head home, navigating seems to be a bit of a struggle for students. Recently, a few ALHS teachers have taken it upon themselves to act as “median strips,” forcing traffic flow in natural directions and keeping people moving. They act as human dividers to separate crowds throughout the school for faster student flow.

These teachers, including Todd Lange (English) and Hoang Tran (Science) have been spotted at either the bottom of the steps of the locker bay at the end of the day, or near the lunch trays..

 Lange can most commonly be seen sacrificing himself at the end of the school day in the downstairs locker bay, separating those heading upstairs, and those heading in and out of the locker bay. Lange usually doesn’t say much as he allows students to brush past him with hanging heads almost as indirect “thank yous,” while others do even a little less by just disregarding him entirely.

 The same is to be found with Tran, one of ALHS’s newest teachers. Like Lange, Tran seems to mind his own business when going about his duty. Audrey Laite, junior, believes what they’re doing is both instructed and a personal choice.

 Laite imagines it would feel like babysitting for the teacher, overseeing chaos generated by anxious and hungry teens. Although she thinks this may cause people to feel as though they’re looked down upon, she thinks we should show them gratitude as she thinks there would be some pretty big shoes to fill.

“I think we should treat them with respect and understand they’re doing their jobs whether or not we agree with it,” Laite said. “Sure, we might feel like kids when they do that, but it’s their job.”

Just now aware to the teacher’s actions or not, Laite believes a moment of your time to thank them is definitely something all students should invest in.