Students Should Sit in the Hallways
"It’s where my friends usually hang out,” Jonathan Teng says.
“We have tables to sit at and generally it’s where everyone is at,” Alan Fong said.
The cafeteria is the designated lunch room. It’s a social environment where friends can come together and talk about their day, complain about homework, or maybe even sit in silence and scroll through social media on their phones, without anyone ever saying a word to each other; but that’s besides the point.
When you walk into the cafeteria, you’ll find groups of people occupying a table and enjoying their half hour lunch break.
“I find it more fun because there’s people and more clean,” freshmen Cassidy Hendren said.
Other reasons why students such as freshmen Ozi Mateos prefer to eat in the cafeteria is because “there’s more space.”
“I like sitting at a table,” senior Jessica Harrison said. The cafeteria is a more ideal setting for lunch and it seems more practical to be there for most students. However, not everyone is a social butterfly.
“Nothing against the cafeteria, I just like how [the hallways] are quieter and more private,” senior Kyle Brewer stated.
Others like to have their personal space and they feel like the cafeteria is too crowded. “I feel so tight in one spot,” sophomore Theresa Tran said. Others feel self-conscious about their surroundings. This is how freshmen Sarahi Velazquez and junior Srijay Sharma feel. “It feels like all eyes are on you,” said Velazquez. “You don’t eat in the cafeteria unless you have a lot of friends,” Sharma joked.
Midway through the 2016-17 school year, Century stopped allowing students to eat lunch in the academic hallways. This was due to irresponsibility on some students’ parts, leaving their area with crumbs and trash.
If students are found in the hallways during lunch, they will automatically be asked to move to the areas where staff members want us to be. It seems as if they want to corral all the students in one area so they can keep an eye on us.
Another reason why students aren’t allowed in the hallways is because of the disruptions it can cause to a classroom. This shouldn’t be a problem if students are sitting at a table alone, catching up on some homework.
Some students don’t even spend their lunchtime in the school, and they eat at tables outside the band room. This is a good alternative for everyone because it provides fresh air, but they don’t allow students to have access to the school courtyards. It seems redundant that the courtyards, an enclosed area, aren’t open for lunch, while instead it’s a graveyard for rats. Staff members don’t need to worry about students leaving the campus as opposed to the outside tables where students could easily leave with no one noticing. The only thing the staff would have to worry about is the mess some students will make.
This was the reason for students being banned from the hallways for lunch in the first place. It’s unfortunate that not everyone is at the expected maturity level high school promotes, but it shouldn’t take the privilege away from those who are mature.
According to a small survey given to 285 students, 75% said they felt more comfortable eating lunch in the hallways, while 25% chose the cafeteria. One of the school’s top priorities should be the student's’ safety. Not every student should be forced to eat in places where they feel uncomfortable. The cafeteria can be crowded, even hostile to some students’ point of view. Hopefully by next year, the academic hallways will be open for students to eat their lunch or study in peace, where they can recharge before exercising their brains for the rest of the day.