Cafeteria crisis causes mayhem

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Students waiting in line to enter the cafeteria. Photo by: Shayda Dadvand

Pariss Chami, Staff Writer

It’s official: the cafeteria line has gotten out of hand, everyone has acknowledged that the long length of the cafeteria line is out of “The Hunger Games”, no pun intended. Students standing outside the cafeteria and  to the 3rd floor patio were getting crowded and crammed together. The time students are spending waiting in the line is eating up most of their lunch period.

 

On August 18th, “The line today was the worst it’s ever been in my time at this school,” junior Sofia Lifson said.

 

Getting food wastes half of that time, with only 40 minutes available for students to get their food, eat and relax for the next period. 

 

“My friends say it takes 20 minutes to get in and out,” sophomore  Elsa Ankri said.

 

The minute the bell rings, students sprint to the cafeteria to avoid this wait time. The line becomes more dangerous as students push, shove, and cut in front of each other to be the first to get their food.

 

“It was crazy! It was literally a mosh pit. Everyone was pushing and being pushed” sophomore Elisa Bonaparte-Wyse said.

 

The administrators are trying new ways to shorten the line and make it easier for students— they’ve developed the idea to move the line toward the hallway going into the science building— but some have not been successful. It is bringing out the worst in students.

 

 “It was very unorganized and people were cutting. I even cut, because the line would have taken all the lunch period” sophomore, Ella Giroux.

 

Students brewed up ideas for solutions to this situation; solutions they think would help the chaos. 

 

“They need to come up with a better solution for [the line],” junior Harper Flynn said. “What I think they need to do is open it up and create many lines.”

 

However, while students are not in ultimate control of the cafeteria system, ASB is able to work with administration on this issue to make students more comfortable.

 

“ASB is working with [adminstiors] to do certain things to help the students,” Assistant principal of operations, Mr. Phil Chang said. The goal is to make sure everyone gets their food safely and quickly, we need to and will achieve that goal 

 

It is up to the administration to help students out of the line peacefully and intervene with any disciplinary concerns. Thankfully, on Aug. 22, the administration started to take action; they moved the pizza line to the second floor patio which divided the lunch lines and minimized issues.