There has been a recent change of events as Edmond Memorial High School swiftly starts up their second semester of the 21-22 school year: a time cut of students’ lunch period on Tuesdays and Thursdays/“Advisory” days. 

In the previous semester, students’ lunches were 35 minutes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 40 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday. However, with the new semester starting, Edmond Public Schools (EPS) has decided to cut back on the school’s lunch time and add it on to instructional time instead. I personally find this switch to be rather unnecessary, considering that students’ lunches are already shorter than needed for a quality digestive time. 

Even though this schedule change doesn’t seem like a massive change to the routine of the school, it is for students and teachers. Students often have lunch as their only free time of the day and relished the extra five minutes that “advisory” days brought them.

The unwarranted stress that school brings to students has been a long debated topic. I would expect adults to do their best to accommodate children’s stress levels, especially in high school. Most students are at school for seven or eight hours of their day.

With the majority of students only having their lunch period as a short break throughout their day, I think they deserve a longer break to decompress. Forcing students into a high stress and fast paced environment for their 30 minute lunch break seems beyond absurd.

Depending on where students have their classes before lunch, many have classes all the way at the opposite end of the building. Thus causing some to take five or maybe even ten minutes to make it to their cars or designated eating spots, leaving little time for an enjoyable and stress free lunch.

However, it’s not just the student’s that are harboring negative feelings towards the cutback on lunch time; teachers have also expressed their thoughts about the shortened lunches. Even with an hour set aside for planning, many teacher’s use their allotted lunchtime as a break from students and the stress of school. Due to COVID-19 teachers have also had to begin covering coworkers’ classrooms during their planning periods and help with lunch duties. This leaves some teachers with no break throughout their work day. 

With many outerworld conflicts affecting schools and teenagers currently, I would think that administration would be more understanding about needing time to decompress, not just for students, but teachers as well.

For more information contact Anna Baustert at [email protected]