I witnessed my first teacher-on-teacher fight today. The root of the debate was a topic I’ve been meaning to address on this blog: locked doors. Specifically locked library doors. The school where I tutor has very limited accessibility during the day, so that the only way to get onto campus is through the main office. Unfortunately, the school does not seem to have been designed with lockdown in mind, because the quickest way to proceed to classrooms from the office is through the school library.
The school strictly prohibits use of the library as a passageway from office to classrooms. To this end, the door from the main office to the library remains locked at all times. Unfortunately that’s not the case with the door at the opposite end of the library, which leads to an inner courtyard. (I suspect this has something to do with the fire code. More on this in a moment.)
The locked door creates several predictable problems:
- Visitors who enter the main office with the library as a destination (including the other tutors and myself) have to ask the secretary to let them into the library or bang on the door until someone notices them.
- Students have free access to the library through the courtyard.
- Students who enter the library through the courtyard get interrogated about why they are in the library.
- People who are trying to do legitimate activities in the library get distracted by the interrogation, which is often loud.
- Students view the library as a restricted area, which is unfortunate.
- (Apparently) students are discouraged from coming to the library (and activities that occur in the library, namely tutoring) because they get locked out.
The teacher brawl centered on this last point. One of the other after-school tutors, who also works as a teacher in the school, became upset with the library attendant (who I suspect is not actually a School Librarian) over the issue of student attendance. This tutor claimed her students do not consistently show up to tutoring because they attempt to enter the library through the locked door, give up and go home.
(I would add that motivation may also factor into such a student’s decision, but I was only an onlooker.)
The library attendant’s defense was that he was only following school policy. He also pointed out (legitimately) that all the students know the rule and should know how to get into the library by the back way if the main entrance is locked.
The conflict escalated as the tutor berated the librarian and expressed her disapproval of the policy, insisting that the door should not be locked in the first place, yada yada yada.
Although I agree that the policy is stupid and the students should be more welcomed in the library, I was thoroughly horrified by the tutor’s outburst. It was inappropriate for her to question the librarian’s authority in front of her students, especially when there was nothing he could do at that time to resolve the situation. Not only was she wasting her students’ time (and, by proxy, government dollars), but she was also distracting other people working in the library.
Not a particularly smart move.
I have to make a brief return to the issue of fire codes, because I cannot figure out how this school could possibly be in compliance.
I have tried a couple of times to leave campus through the courtyard adjacent to library, and both times I ended up at a locked gate and had to retrace my steps through the courtyard to the library, through the library to the main office, and through the main office to the parking lot.
The school grounds are completely surrounded by an iron fence. The gates in the fence are all chained and padlocked. Where the courtyard would join with the parking lot, a chainlink fence stretches from the school building to the iron fence. Unless you can fly, this campus is impenetrable.
I am honestly curious how this is legal. It seems that in the case of a fire, students fleeing school by the western end of campus would have to scale a fence and run all the way across the parking lot to leave school grounds. I can’t even imagine how a person in a wheelchair could be evacuated in this direction. Presumably he or she would have to enter the library (through an unadapted door, for the record) and exit through the main office.
Naturally, I am also concerned that students’ access to books is being restricted. But at least they still have a library. I suppose we should be counting our blessings where we can.
