Recently the administration has decided to no longer allow students to eat in the gym during lunch. I believe the ban was made to lessen the amount of garbage that students were leaving in the gym after lunch. The amount of candy wrappers, chip bags, plastic plates, water bottles, and left-over food that was being left in gym was concerning. Now, some students will argue that it is the janitor’s job to clean up after them, but it is your own responsibility to clean up after yourself; there is no reason to make the janitors work harder than they already do. Especially given all the trash cans around the school, we have complete access to disposing of our garbage the right way. After meeting with Mrs. Mauer-smith, she said that eating in the gym is no longer allowed because of the amount of trash being left behind, there are other places to eat your lunch like the cafeteria, and it gives the gym teachers more space in the gym for their classes. Having the bleachers down for lunch limited the amount of space that our gym classes had and that was unfair to our gym teachers… but given that they are not down anymore, there is limited space to sit and eat your lunch so there is not really a reason to be eating in the gym now. Mrs. Mauer-Smith also mentioned how it gives students more space to play games in the gym at lunch. For example, students now have more access to our basketball hoops, more space to play volleyball, walk around, etc. No longer being allowed to eat in the gym may be seen as a negative thing to some students but it was taken for granted and actions have consequences. Regardless of the gym situation, you still have the cafeteria, the career center, the library, and outside (turf area) to go to for lunch.