Injuries that force kids into crutches are painful, but what kids really dread is maneuvering around school with their injury. Getting from class to class is incredibly difficult for students on crutches, so Staples has taken measures to make it slightly easier.

Crutches are very common, because many different injuries to the leg, hip, or knee could result in the need for additional support while walking. Kids playing sports inside or outside of school, or students who are just active in general, are susceptible to injuries like these.

“It was very tiring to get around school and to go from floor to floor,” Dillon Weisberg ’19 said. Weisberg was on crutches for three weeks because of a torn hip flexor and found it inefficient to get around.

“The elevator in school is really far from many classrooms and because I need to use the elevator, it is hard to get from class to class,” Jared Wainshal ’19 said. Wainshal recently tore his ACL and had surgery putting him on crutches for a little over three and a half weeks.

While it is terribly tough to get around school on crutches, Staples has made changes to lessen the trouble. The elevator and the flexibility of teachers are two very important components of this problem.

“It’s [the elevator] efficient, much better than using the stairs. It gets you to your class relatively on time,” Weisberg said about the help that the elevator provides to crutch users.

Wainshal agrees, but he thought that the biggest help that the school provides is late passes to students on crutches. Since it takes him 10 minutes to get from class to class, the extra time is very helpful.

Enzo Valadares ’21 felt the same way as Wainshal. “[My teachers] let me be late to classes, so I would never race to class and get trampled in the hallway,” Valadares said.

Getting around Staples with crutches can be difficult. Although most people believe that the school is doing a good job with aiding people who need to use crutches, there are still some improvements that can be made.

“The only thing they can really do is input another elevator on the other side of the school,” Weisberg said. “It might be easier to take an elevator on the other side rather than going all away across to the middle every single time.”