RHS’s Only Elevator Is Falling Apart and Students Are Paying the Price

It only took one knee injury for me to realize how challenging it is to navigate the school when the stairs are not feasible. I’ve resorted to the lone elevator at the far back left of the school, which only goes to the second floor, and the single chair lift to the third floor, as it’s very difficult for me to use several of the stairs around the school. To put it simply, the elevator is falling apart. The tiles are ripped up with various scratches littered across the floor and surrounding the walls.
The first week of using the elevator was a nightmare. The key I was given constantly got jammed in the socket, forcing me to ask a nearby teacher for assistance, and when it finally worked I was late for my class. Not only is the elevator flat out disgusting, but while I was attempting to hold the door open for another injured student, the sensors failed to work, almost causing my crutch to get stuck in the door. The one elevator is, of course, located at the far back left of the school, exactly on the opposite side of the chair lift leading to the third floor. So once you make the treacherous walk to the lift, you also need to have a custodian to work the machine. This process takes much more than the five minutes an injured student gets excused at the end of class, and frankly, no high school student wants to be seen on the painfully slow chair lift. This results in the student slowly but surely hopping up the flight of stairs, and missing vital class time. In the past week, I have witnessed two other injured students ditching the chair lift, to dangerously hobble up and down the stairs.
I’ve also taken notice of the fact that there are no means of transportation to the basement other than the stairs, unless I am ill informed about a hidden elevator or lift. Additionally, the school is openly adding new additions to the outside of campus, which they have not been shy to share. One can even say they are flaunting it. However, they clearly don’t care to improve the little things like an elevator or the lift process.
The school clearly has money to spend, but it puzzles me to see where they put it. What happens when there’s a student with a permanent disability that is forced to use these dirty, slow, and unreliable facilities? If our community truly cares about efficiency, and inclusiveness, then the school desperately needs to invest to assure that all students are accounted for.