W hen the weather is nice and students frequent the green space known as the courtyard, one runs the risk of being caught by one of the most dreadful fates possible for a student of Ames High School: getting locked outside in the courtyard. This undesirable fate can lead to the unlucky student enduring the bitter cold of an Iowa Winter while plastered against the unyielding door, trying to to get the attention of a passing peer. The eventual consequence of these events are likely a tardy in the next class and an illogical fear of all courtyards and heavy, steel doors. With a large part of the student body going through the courtyard at some point in the day, be it for getting to class, lunch, study hall, or what have you, it seems totally illogical that the doors that allow students to go to and from the courtyard are locked during class periods and occasionally during passing period itself. “It just doesn’t make sense,” senior Emily Vernon said. “If you are hanging out in the courtyard and you have to go to the bathroom, you can’t. It isn’t as big of an issue in the winter, but when it gets warmer, there are going to be problems.” There are many days when a group of adventurous students that dared to gamble with the journey through the courtyard are seen huddled together outside, desperately trying to get one of the students passing by to let them in. “It seems kind of random as far as when the doors are unlocked,” senior Krystal Adams said. “If it was more consistent, there wouldn’t be an issue.” Whether or not anything will change remains to be seen. As the days grow warmer and more and more students escape to the courtyard where eating, talking, and fun are tolerated, the problems associating the locking of the courtyard doors will become more potent. If the administration really wants more students to stay in the school during lunch and study halls, they should allow students to go between the courtyard and the main building without resorting to jamming a rock in the door frame. While this problem seems insignificant on the surface, it is of vital importance to the student body and needs to be addressed soon. “It makes me angry,” senior Jacinta Misra said. “It’s like they locked me out of love.”