PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Could staggering dismissal times ease the crush of students converging at Broad and Spring Garden streets every afternoon?
Approximately 2,500 students go to five high schools near Broad and Spring Garden, and they all get out around 3 p.m. De’Naiza Watson, a junior at Science Leadership Academy who serves as a student representative on the Philadelphia School Board, says it can be difficult just getting to the Broad Street Line.
"It's just, there's kids, and a lot of them like to linger,” Watson explained. “I mean, we're teenagers. We're going to linger. We're going to hang out with our friends. So a lot of the time there's just a lot of traffic. There's a lot of, like, pushing and shoving just to get down to the subway alone.”
Watson says the traffic doesn’t end there, noting that once they get to the subway, it's “crowded” and “crazy."
The district standardized high school schedules two years ago to align with bus transportation.
District Safety Chief Kevin Bethel told the school board Thursday that it's worth examining again.
Watson says she believes safety in the area has improved, but she and the other kids who simply want to get home would like to see a more orderly dismissal.