In 2022, the city of Los Alamitos invested $49,023,306 into the new LAHS Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics building, featuring three floors, complete with an elevator. In 2025, $30 million was spent on the new LAHS gym, The Griffin Center, and the world language building was also refurbished.
While these new modern additions were desperately needed, students find themselves navigating two distinct environments: “old campus” and “new campus.”
Students cannot help but compare the two — and spot the differences. Prior to its renovation, the world language building was characterized by colorful artwork, littered
with posters and promos, transporting students into a flurry of travel across Latin America, the Deaf community, Japan and France. Now, the walls remain mostly blank, waiting to be decorated. The STEM building contains similarly sterile walkways, its shiny new gem being the elevator. That said, an injury and certification of such via a doctor’s note is the only way for a student to be granted access to the elevator.
The blank white walls of the freshly renovated language feel eerily sterile. (Sophia Shalbey)
“It’s a practice, not a policy,” said LAHS Assistant Principal of Student Services and Attendance, Mr.Bowen, in explanation of the school’s approach towards student elevator access, as the school attempts to manage the liabilities of injured students from the over 3000 Griffins that roam
the campus daily.
In 2024, current LAHS senior Ethan Lee became dependent on the elevator after incurring an injury that forced him onto crutches. At the time, the elevator was experiencing technical issues, rendering it unusable.
“For a good week, I couldn’t even go to
class....
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Northbound I-605 two outside lanes
