While students crowd around tables, others are grouped outside the doors of the lunchroom. Some are even in the bathroom, not wanting to be packed into a room with a maximum capacity of 125 that is holding about 150.  Everyday, the MPR is almost overflowing with students from periods four through six.  

Last year, UACHS was lenient and allowed students to leave campus during their

 lunch period, regardless of their report card to prevent a rise in COVID cases throughout the school. However, to motivate students to do well in all their classes, we have reverted back to our original lunchtime rules. 

Prior to COVID, students were only allowed to leave the building if they maintained honor roll or dean’s list throughout each quarter.  UACHS junior, Asha Ramkissoon, feels as if she can barely breathe during her lunch period. 

“It is like I go into the lunchroom and I have no type of personal space, I can not 

even sit down without someone being really close to me,” Ramkissoon said. “It is uncomfortable to be in an environment where everyone is basically on top of each other.” 

Besides the overcrowding,  that’s only half of the student body’s concern. Out of every period, only a handful of kids are allowed to enjoy whatever they want for lunch. Meanwhile, the other students have to rely on school lunch, or bring something to eat from home. Most of the time, however, some students choose not to eat at all. 

“Most of the time, I hear kids complaining that they’re hungry,” Ramkisoon said. “The school’s lunches do not agree with everyone’s appetite; plus, a lot of us already struggle with getting to school on time as is, let alone having to prepare a whole meal along with that.”

As the school year continues, all students can do is try their best to make Honor Roll or Dean’s List by November. Hopefully by the second quarter most of us can finally get out of eating lunch on a styrofoam plate. So, good luck . . . we all definitely need it.