Have you ever misplaced your phone in your room? You look everywhere yet you still can’t seem to find it. In your mind you know it’s there yet you can’t put your finger on where it is. ` Instead of just accepting the fact that you didn’t look hard enough, you go and look for it all around your house, completely ignoring the fact that it is right in front of your face.

       Similar to this, students seem to ignore the facts that are being waved in front of their faces. They’re not grasping the concept that lunch has not really changed, the only thing that is different is the amount of the rules being implemented and the consequences that come with your actions. At the end of the day, how can you lose freedom that you never really had to begin with? 

       In the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year the Stafford County School Board implemented a new lunch policy. This policy gave the students an hour a day for lunch, students were expected to sign up and be in flextime for half of this hour each day for remediation or help in a class. Teachers also had the power to “zap” you, failure to attend a zap would result in a referral. Instead of following the expectations, many students used that hour as a time to smoke, fight, and leave school without getting caught. Students used last year’s lunch block as a time to break the rules without having to face the consequences. This year that changed. 

       Lunch still falls within the same hour and you still have access to part of the school to walk around; in addition, students are now assigned to a designated class for half of lunch in which they are obligated to attend. Failure to attend will be marked as an unexcused absence, and will result in a referral. Continuous disobedience will result in extraneous punishment, leading as far as the inability to graduate with your class due to not having enough seat time. 

       You still get the choice on whether or not you attend your assigned “Lunch and Learn” class, however you also have to be fine with the consequences that may result if you choose to ignore the rules set in place.