Next year, the District 219 Board of Education will include the possibility of making lunch mandatory in its Annual Review of Programs. For more information about why click here.

Currently, students can request to be exempt from having a lunch period. For example, if a student’s schedule does not provide enough room for a free period, they can request to have their lunch period taken out of their schedule in order to make room for the class.

While some faculty members especially feel it’s important for every student to eat lunch, I agree with most of the student population and feel that it should be up to the student to decide whether or not they should have a lunch.

Junior Pearl Kohler feels that having a lunch is “the right choice for some students but not for other students. I didn’t have a lunch first semester sophomore year and learned for myself that I’m better off with a lunch. Students can learn from their mistakes and make their own choices.”

A mandatory lunch period for some students takes away from their other classes. Students will not have room to take all the electives that they are interested in if lunch is required.

Freshman Teresa Franks is actively involved in theatre and choir. “This year I had to make the tough decision [whether I should] take Theatre Workshop or Choir. I ended up picking Theatre, but I didn’t give up on choir. I discussed with my counselor so that I could drop lunch next year and take both,” she said. “I love both and plan on majoring in musical theatre, so both subjects are important. My only other option is to drop my foreign language class but it’s important to me and it looks good for college applications.”

Since all of the science classes have double periods three times a week, a mandatory lunch would take up yet another period. Students taking SIRS in addition to their regular science classes (biology, chemistry, physics, etc.) will be especially affected.

Sophomore Ilma Lodhi plans to be a tutor in the Point next year as well as taking SIRS, honors physics. “I think that each person has a goal they want to achieve, and in order to achieve it they might have to sacrifice their lunches in order to take more classes.” If a lunch is required Lodhi will have to give up SIRS, which she feels is “very crucial to her future”.

This is also the case for sophomore Emily Moy, who also plans to tutor in the Point while taking two science classes. “We are all old enough to manage our own meals,” Moy said. “I’m old enough to know when I need to eat, and a lunch would just take away [the opportunity for me to take another] academic class.”

Most students who do not have a regular lunch period eat throughout the day in their classes. Some may argue that eating disrupts the class, but if teachers find it disruptive they can tell students not to eat in their class. Students should be allowed to decide if they should have a lunch or not because in some cases a lunch period will not benefit the student.