Mill Creek High School currently has an hour-long lunch every Friday to give students more free time with their friends and give teachers time to themselves. However, with the hour-long lunch, some conflicts arise with this privilege. During the hour, the lunch lines are very cramped, and students often cut in line. Students also conflict with each other, which makes the lunchroom very chaotic as there are many students. Although it comes with conflicts, the benefit of the hour-long lunch is that students have more time to spend with friends and enjoy more freedom. Mill Creek students and staff should come together to solve these problems by establishing systems and policies while still keeping the hour-long lunch enjoyable for everyone.

“It gives students a good way to relax and hang out more than just during homeroom and gives me a day just to breathe,” Jessica De Beer, FAC, said.

Indeed, both students and teachers would benefit from the hour-long lunch. It’s a good privilege to have, and overall, it gives the school staff and students a bit more freedom after being in a building for half the day. “It allows me to talk to friends from other lunch periods that I don’t have any classes with,” Daylani Lopez-Perez, 10, said.

The hour-long lunch also allows students to meet up with friends who have different class periods or students who don’t have classes together at all. The hour gives students more time to be with their friends and maintain their relationships. However, the hour-long lunch is not perfect, as students do cause trouble.

“There should be a way of knowing if a student from a different lunch hour is skipping class to go to a different lunch,” Perez said, showing that some students skip classes to be with their friends during the lunch hour. Other conflicts that arise during the hour-long lunch include overcrowding in the lunchroom.

“The lines get very crowded and annoying, and I have to sit there for like 20 minutes to get my food, so maybe a more organized system would help,” Sasha Carr, 11, said. With the hour-long lunch on Fridays, staff and students should come up with a system that makes the line run more smoothly so Carr and other students can get their lunch and move on with their day.

Another way staff and students can improve the hour-long lunch could be by adding more locations for students to be at instead of just the lunchroom or the library. “The library gets very crowded eventually. I would like to be able to sit in the atrium while working,” Carr said. Allowing students to be in other locations could also benefit those who have assignments to complete and provide a more suitable environment for them.

“Maybe sports tournaments might be cool, or maybe club meetings, if that would be possible. If they could work it out, it would be cool for more kids to get involved during school hours,” De Beer said. Having club meetings or events could help students get more involved in activities around the school, especially if some students are unable to participate outside of school due to personal issues.

“Mostly the length of the line, and sometimes it can get pretty chaotic and loud. It’s kind of good right now, but there are just obvious things like overcrowding. Maybe letting people sit outside again on Fridays could lessen the number of people in the lunchroom. A lot of times you can’t find a place to sit, and it feels awkward sitting next to people you don’t know,” Carr said.

The hour-long lunch is overall a great privilege for students, with many potential improvements that could make it more enjoyable for both students and teachers.