Elevator Controversy

An abundance of students may have already taken the school elevator at least once, either secretly and without permission or due to medical reasons. At AISG, students are not allowed to take the elevator without special circumstances such as injury. Newly implemented rules have established that, in order to take the elevator, students must pick up an Elevator Pass from either the nurse’s office or Mr. Tragert’s office. The Elevator Passes are only for students that are injured or students who, for medical reasons, cannot take the stairs. After the Elevator Pass was released, there were different opinions and questions regarding this situation. Sources of confusion about the elevator pass are cleared up in this article.

First of all, what are some thoughts that students in our AISG community have about the elevator in general? An anonymous student said, “The fact that the teachers can use the elevator all the time doesn’t really bother me, however, sometimes I feel that this may be a little unfair for students because we normally take the stairs. If the elevator was only made for students and teachers that are injured, this will make everyone fit in a way by taking the stairs regularly. My opinion is that the elevator should not be only available for teachers, but it should be opened for injured people in general.”

Several people might wonder why students aren’t allowed to take the elevator regularly and this confusion was explained by an interview with Mr. Tragert: “The biggest reason why students aren’t allowed to take the elevator regularly is that we only have ONE in school. It has nothing to do with not wanting the students to use it. At any given day, there are about 700 people on this campus and if everyone is allowed, the elevator is not going to be available for everyone. If the elevator was opened for everyone, students will take the route as we will probably all agree. I can already imagine 400 students waiting in line to take the elevator if it was allowed for them to use it.”

Several students were also confused about the elevator pass. Another anonymous student said, “I understand teachers are allowed to use the elevator and this may be a way to prioritize them and it’s totally fine. However, during community service, there were a lot of times where I had to bring a lot of stuff to school. It’s usually impossible to carry a whole bunch of stocks upstairs, and if I’m in this situation, how am I suppose to bring a whole bunch of stocks to the nurse and get an elevator pass?” This confusion was also solved by Mr. Tragert. He said, ” Students who need to use the elevator to move stocks and when they’re carrying a bunch of boxes, they are more than welcomed to use the elevator. If students are using the elevator reasonably, it is totally fine.” Mr. Tragert said the purpose of the elevator pass was to make the process easier. “When it comes to rules, I don’t like gray areas. With the elevator, it has never been a big deal, but people were not sure why students would come out in the elevator. With the pass, this makes the process simpler. Students won’t be questioned when they get to the top and this avoids confusion.” According to Mr. Tragert, the elevator pass was never created to catch students; that is not the intention at all. The primary reason for the elevator pass was to allow students who need to take the elevator to use it in a comfortable way. He also added, ” If students are injured during the weekends and they must use the elevator, they can e-mail me before school starts and receive the elevator pass first thing in the morning at my office.”

Another anonymous student said, “I get that we should prioritize those who are injured. It’s totally reasonable for them to take the elevator because we have legs, we can take the stairs, and it’s probably the only time for us to exercise. I realize we run out of time to exercise as we get older.”

If students want to take the elevator, they are welcomed only when they are injured or carrying big stocks, holding an elevator pass in their hand.