Coconino students without space to eat lunch

The areas in which students are allowed to eat during lunch are very limited.

During the snowy winters, when it’s too cold to eat outside, students either have to go off-campus in their cars, be outside in the cold or stay in the cafeteria.

The problem with the cafeteria is, when everyone is there at once, it gets crowded and not everyone has a place to sit and eat.

“I think that students should be able to go to classrooms with teacher’s consent and [to eat in] common areas without being in the halls,” senior Bryce Colvard said.

Many teachers think it’s fair that we can only eat in the cafeteria and outside. “Yes, I do. And the reason why is because I’ve been here a long time and we used to have open hallways, but in the past students have not been very responsible about picking up after themselves, so then it turns out to be a rodent problem,” math teacher Angelina Thornsley said.

If we were to go back to open hallways and students continued the tradition of not picking up after themselves and a rodent problem were to occur, it would cost the school more money and reduce the funds going to programs and activities at the school.

Not only teachers, but janitors as well believe the eating areas we have now are fair.

The janitors face the daily battle with the trash the students leave behind.

“You’re not the only students going through [these] hallways. We have to make them last as long as we can. You eat in the hallways [and] you all don’t pick up after yourselves and you leave stains on the floors and on the carpets and we have to spend extra time keeping these carpets [clean],” janitor Mark Lopez said.

Sometimes students have been seen throwing trash on the ground in front of the janitors.

“[It makes me feel] a little disappointed in the students ‘cause you guys as the student body should be taking care of the school,” Lopez said.

There are a lot of arguments about whether students should be able to eat in the halls. Both sides agree that more space is needed, but are not sure where additional space on campus can be allocated. Until such time as more rooms or sections of the hallways are open, students will continue to be clustered in the cafeteria or stuck out in the freezing cold.