The hallway outside of the cafeteria during lunch can at times be like the stampede scene from “The Lion King.” Chaos is an understatement. Yet in the middle of this there’s always one constant: Diane Cardinale, known to the students as Mrs, D.

“I stay at the top of the ramp to make sure i see all the kids coming up, With the end goal of moving the traffic,” she said

Mrs. D is the school’s hall monitor. During a recent lunch, Mrs. D was surprisingly optimistic given the noise and crowds.

“I make sure every kid is where they are supposed to be,” she said as students streamed out of lunch.

For starters her overall role during lunch is to approve who can leave the lunch room in her words but a lot more than that seems to happen. From people trying to escape, swarms of kids crowding the bathroom even someone asking for her to buy them food.

The most active she needs to be is during the transition time. When the lunch gets out she moves down to the end of the hallway, after the crowd passed i asked about this.

“Usually I’m supposed to monitor for fights and other behavior,” she said.

A specific example she gave was from last year when she had to move her spot from the bottom of the ramp to the top.

“So there was a time last year where they gave apples with lunch, and then I’ll find them up against the wall smashed.”

At the end of every lunch around 15 kids stand in the hall waiting to get a head start on heading to class. This swarm of people camping in the hall was present throughout all three lunches.

In the positive light Mrs. D has conversations with a large amount of kids during lunch block. From quick greetings to full conversations Mrs. D seems to know everybody.