PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — At Lincoln High School, it’s been a tradition for juniors and seniors to sit in lawn chairs in the hallway during lunchtime. Not anymore.
The state fire marshal received a tip on Thursday about the possible fire hazard the students crowding the hall could cause. On Friday, the Portland Public Schools were ordered to clear those hallways.
“It’s kind of a tradition,” student Macie Cartel said. “The lower classmen can’t do it, just the upper classmen.”
“It’s not good. If you look at the hallways, they’re crowded,” said Courtney Wilton, the Interim Executive Director of Operations for PPS. “It’s a school that was designed for roughly 950 students and right now there’s over 1700 students.”
That’s right. The school has nearly double the number of student it was designed to hold. “They all fit, the school’s doing a great job of making it work but it’s crowded,” Wilton said.
But he said the tradition is “not ideal from a fire safety standpoint. … It probably shouldn’t be allowed.”
Portland Fire & Rescue said the crowd could potentially block easy access to the fire exits in an emergency. A fire marshal has now been assigned to work with Lincoln High School to ensure there aren’t any fire code violations in the future.
Students aren’t sold on the idea it’s not safe.
“That would be kind of upsetting because every other year has done it, so that would be unfair if our year couldn’t do it,” Cartel said.
“I’d be pretty bummed since I’m a junior this year and I’ve been looking forward to it my first two years of high school,” Eammon Connor said.