Case Study Eight

The principal of Mission School sat in her office examining the reports of incidents and injuries that occurred in the hallways of her school that year. Most of the problems occurred on the narrow wooden stairs and ramps of the old school building. Because of the unusual placement of these stairs, they often became clogged when some students tried to go up the stairs while other students were coming down. She smiled as she remembered the old movie Up the Down Staircase. As she pondered the problem, she noticed a brightly colored image on her computer screen. She had an idea. With cooperation from the maintenance department and volunteer parents, some sets of stairs were painted a special shade of yellow, called buttercup. Other stairs were painted a light brown. After the new paint job, the principal launched an informational campaign to make sure all students knew the new rules, represented in the slogan: “Buttercup is up; brown is down.” The school held an assembly, all classroom teachers reinforced the new procedures, and the slogan was repeated whenever necessary. The color coding was so successful that the principal also had the landings of the staircases painted bright red, meaning students needed to keep moving. A new slogan was born: “No parking in red zones.” In fact, red paint was used on all areas of the school where loitering caused problems. Some teased the principal about her color coding, but everyone agreed that it helped reduce the number of problems in these areas of the school.