The school day is long, we all know it. By the time fourth hour rolls around, the thirty minutes of lunch are our savior. Having the ability to leave the school to run home and eat or grab something we forgot is amazing as well. Soon this much needed break might be taken away.
Even with the gain of freshmen next year, the school board is looking to make more changes. The topic of taking away open lunch has risen more than once, but really, the reason as to why they would take it away is a little shady. Claiming it is for our “safety, nutrition, and even personal finances.”

Well, thank you school board, we’re glad you care so much about us, but seriously? No board member or high school administrator can remember one time when a student was injured off-campus while at lunch. There has never before been a problem with open lunch, but now, with freshmen moving up, it suddenly must be changed. Clearly we have proven that we can handle having open lunch, but the school board says it’s ready for change.

As for taking away open lunch being for our nutrition, that’s ridiculous. The cafeteria food isn’t awful, but a lot of us who do partake in open lunch go home for lunch, where we save money and eat food we actually enjoy. Also, places like Juice Stop and Subway are healthy open lunch options. Isn’t high school about learning what works best for us? If we can’t learn what nutrition and financial choices work best for us before we leave the nest, how will we survive college?

To make it even worse, they’re willing to make it a “privilege” to certain students. Huh, taking away something we are allowed to do and making it something we have to earn. Yeah. That makes sense. Basically, because the school board can, they’ll take away open lunch for the sake of “change”.

A slightly better option, yet still unfair, is making open lunch only available to juniors and seniors. It makes some sense because no freshmen can drive and not a lot of sophomores can, but those sophomores who can drive passed their driving test. They’re not posing a huge threat. The school board is attempting to make a smoother transition to a four year high school by taking away open lunch, but honestly? Those of us who are going to have to share the school with the freshmen aren’t exactly thrilled, and taking away open lunch isn’t going to make us love them any more. Not to mention the fact that our lunch room is our commons. It’s not huge, during lunch it can get pretty full, and adding an entire grade to that is not going to be pleasant.
To sum it up, we get what the school board is trying to do, but taking away open lunch isn’t going to help the transition of freshmen into the high schools. It’s just going to make us mad and prevent us from having the delicious Chipotle burrito bowl we’ve been craving all day.