For many, the ending of daylight savings time solely means that the sun goes down earlier than usual. However, as a Muslim, this completely shifts how I progress through my day.

It is a religious obligation to pray five times a day, with each prayer being within a specific time period. Thus when the sun sets at an earlier time than usual, students have to resort to praying Dhuhr (one of the five daily prayers) during school.

While in the past we have been given specific classrooms to pray in, this year the students have been given the emergency exit stairwell. This wouldn't be a problem, except the doors to this stairwell are constantly being locked and unlocked. As a result, many Muslims and I have experienced several instances where we have been locked inside of the emergency exit stairwell for prolonged periods of time.

The easy answer would be to unlock the doors at all times. However, this solution is not realistic due to safety reasons and other measures necessary for the school to take to keep students from loitering around the school.

My request is to simply give Muslim students a proper space to pray in, so we can practice our religion without the risk of missing a substantial amount of class time.