The bell for lunch rings, and students rush down to the cafeteria to eat. What’s the hurry? The answer, the majority of students agree, is that there’s simply not enough space for them to eat with the people they want to.

“The problem is,” student Julio Perez said, “people always have to take chairs away from our table so me and my friends don’t have enough seats. And I like my personal space,” he said. “There’s not enough room for that.” The tables start out at ten seats per table, but sometimes a large group wants to sit together. Sometimes it even gets to the point where the maximum number of chairs that could fit get squished at one table, while others only have a couple chairs by the end of the period.

Heidi Fisher said, “Two lunches are not enough for the amount of kids we have.” She believes that maybe being able to eat in classrooms would help. It would allow friend groups to have privacy, and it would spread out the kids more.

However, Aledo High School’s Principal Peterson thinks differently. “That isn’t a problem,” he said when the topic of overcrowding was brought up. “Yes, we’re a growing district, and a growing school, but we still have plenty of space to eat.” He also opposed the idea of eating in the classrooms. “Classrooms are for instruction, cafeterias are for eating,” he said. He does point out that there are reasons that would mean it is in the students’ best interests not to eat in the cafeteria. Food in the classrooms could attract things like mice and cockroaches.

Mr. Peterson does have an alternative for eating in the classrooms. He suggests that if students are feeling a bit tight in the cafeteria, there are always the benches near the counselor’s office and the vending machines. As long as they don’t leave the main area, there are a variety of places outside of the tables where they could eat.

Overcrowding in our cafeteria is not something that could be solved the way some students prefer, but it is solvable. Pulling up extra seats or sitting on a bench, are just a couple solutions that could make lunchtime fun and stress-free for more students.