Trash On Campus

During the week of 9/18, Coronado High School banned eating lunch outside of the cafeteria. This meant that all meals had to be eaten indoors. The sudden restriction of outdoor school lunch meant that many students now had to change their spot to enjoy their meal, whether it meant eating at a lunch table or hoping that their friends would trust them enough to let them eat inside their car.

Despite the ban lasting only one week, it shows that the school is willing to punish all for the wrongs of few. Lunch is what many find to be the best part of their day acting as a time of interaction and a break from tedious work. Adan Rojas, Class of 2025, eats school lunch every day, outside, with his friends. Adan said, “I just wanna eat some dry [Expletive Deleted] chicken sandwich, and feel the breeze.” Adan was unhappy to hear that his routine had been changed.

Although I myself don’t eat lunch at school, I was directly affected by this change. In my experience, a lot of the people who I socialize with eat lunch, and it becomes hard to coordinate lunchtime to make it enjoyable for everybody. Additionally, the cafeteria is often crowded even without restrictions, so when every student at the second lunch had to eat indoors, it made for issues. The reason for this is widely accepted to be due to students unable to keep the courtyard clean. Though it’s necessary to keep the campus clean, those who create the issues will be no different indoors than if they are outdoors.

The ban was indicative of the fact that there are issues involving students and keeping the campus clean. Deric Grant, Class of 2025, eats lunch at school nearly every day. Deric said, “The outdoor lunch ban was unfortunate but necessary, but in my opinion, we should be encouraged to keep the school clean either way.” This notion creates a great point regarding the logic of which this ban was set.
It is obvious that there were good intentions in such a ban, but the execution was inconsiderate towards the students who kept their stations clean. Furthermore, it’s a definite possibility that the school authority will not hesitate to recreate this punishment for a longer duration or even for a ridiculous period of time.