McLean administrators are enforcing a new regulation regarding where students are permitted to eat lunch for the 2023-2024 school year. Lunch areas are now restricted to the cafeteria, courtyards, lecture hall and Door 9 vicinity to limit the roaming of halls, class disruption and mess throughout the school.
“We had teachers last year that were trying to teach class and there were kids yelling, hanging [out] in the hallway and leaving trash,” Assistant Principal Jeffrey Barham said.
Alongside class disruption, unlimited lunch areas gave students the opportunity to cut class freely during fifth and sixth periods. Administrators are working to limit skipping by monitoring students in the hallway and making announcements through the loudspeaker and McLean Did You Know?, videos played during advisory periods overviewing school events and updates.
“We had students roaming the halls nonstop,” Barham said. “When we [said] ‘go to class’, they would say they were at lunch, but half of the time they were just saying that to roam the halls and skip class.”
The new policy also enables teachers to eat lunch in private without interference from students, allowing them to maintain a culture of openness and comfort in their classes without having to explicitly set the boundary.
“There is so much of my energy that gets put out every day in class to the students,” Theatre Director Phillip Reid said. “Sometimes, just having a 20 minute break without any student energy is needed to recharge myself for my own mental well-being.”
While the lunch policy will limit unnecessary messes in academic areas and the stadium, students still must remain mindful of their sanitation habits and acknowledge the extensive efforts from McLean’s custodial staff.
“[Picking up after yourself] is an easy thing to do,” Principal Ellen Reilly said. “To purposely leave your stuff behind and not be thoughtful toward others is beyond me.”
Administrators and students alike have targeted the issue of school cleanliness in the past. Members of the Committee on Raising Student Voices addressed the problem in their initiatives last year, and recognize the necessity of the policy.
“There is no real way to enforce [cleanliness] without antagonizing and punishing all students,” Committee Head Council member Alexia Bodet said. “I hope that people will be more mindful of our school environment and work towards keeping it clean for everyone’s sake.”
In spite of the seemingly harsh regulations, McLean administrators assure that the policy is beyond reasonable when it comes to the rights of students.
“You have to recognize that McLean is unique in that we allow kids the freedom to [choose where to eat],” Reilly said. “Most schools put everybody in the cafeteria, and we don’t want to take all [of that freedom] away.”