Have you ever driven by the high school during lunch time? A majority of  people have and their initial thought is that it is mass chaos. Why is that? Students at Alliance High School have always wanted longer lunches, but have never seemed to have a good reason why. Adults around town have reasons of their own problems like reckless driving, not enough time to eat, fast food places not getting orders out on time, getting in a rush on icy roads, etc. So does this mean that AHS students should get more time for lunch? Mr. Clear, AHS principal, thinks not.

“We have 38 minutes for lunch including passing time and we have an open campus for lunch. I do think that 38 minutes is adequate for lunch time. The concern that I have is that no one has come and shared with me why they need an extended lunch other than they want more time,” Mr. Clear states.

If the high school were to extend lunchtime they would have to extend school time. The time put towards lunch would either have to be gained back by going to school earlier like at 7:50 or ending later like 3:50 or 4:00 dismissal.

“We have a tardy problem, I think that we would have a larger tardy problem because people are not going to want to be here at 7:50. If we add time to the end of school we’re going to run into activities that start at 4, we’ll be pulling kids out of school earlier and that affects instructional time,” Mr. Clear states.

Mr. Clear’s top priority is to know that the students are safe when they leave for lunch. “I think that it’s choices that people make,  they may need to slow down and realize leaving the parking lot 30 seconds faster isn’t going to change anything,” Mr. Clear explained.

While this is what most teachers think, the students have a different outlook on the subject. Madison Adam, a sophomore at AHS, has a different opinion. “I do think high schoolers should get longer lunches. If you’ve ever seen the high school parking lot at lunch time, the amount of cars speeding out of there and backing out of parking spots is crazy, and it’s completely unsafe. People are always rushing to get their food and rushing back to get to class on time. In my opinion the school’s lunch is horrible so that’s why I think so many people want to leave,” Madison states.

A poll was sent out to the sophomores, juniors, and seniors about lunch time. An estimated 66.3% of the students leave for lunch and 98.1% of them think that the school board needs to add more time. Madison thought there should at least be an extra 10 minutes added while 40.4% of the anonymous people voted for and extra 20 minutes. A question that is analyzed quite frequently is if we should add 20 minutes to lunch and get dismissed at 4:00 instead of 3:40. “I would be okay with this because it would mean our roads at lunch time would be safer and it would be better to give students and teachers both a little extra time. Many students and teachers are here until 4:00 anyways,” an anonymous person exclaimed.

Many people have many different opinions on this subject. The big question is which option is safer and will be more reasonably organized.

As school is reaching a fast end, this subject will have to carry on to next school year. Mr. Clear exclaimed how if we were to consider this change it would have to go through Dr. Unzicker and the school council. So… stay tuned on this uprising subject!