Fighting for a longer lunch

Parking+lot+lines+back+up+everyday%2C+causing+a+delay+in+leaving+campus+for+lunch.

Sarah Brooks

Parking lot lines back up everyday, causing a delay in leaving campus for lunch.

Students spend their lunch period doing a variety of things; this can span from leaving campus for upperclassmen, meeting with a teacher, taking a test, eating or studying. In any of those situations, more time to take a break between classes can be necessary. When two hour classes are back to back, 45 minutes for lunch is not long enough.

For upperclassmen who go off campus and are currently facing 45 minutes for lunch, even a slight delay can result in a student being late. They must get out of the parking lot, drive home or to a restaurant, eat and return to school while facing lunch traffic. This seems very impractical. When the time is limited and students are determined to do it all, a hazard is created for drivers. 

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The nearest place for students to get lunch is the village, which is about seven minutes away from school. In additional to this, it takes five more minutes to get out of the parking lot. After about 12 minutes, there is only 33 minutes left to park, pay, eat, return to school and be sitting at a desk. Because of traffic, wait times in restaurants and other time consuming activities, it is no surprise these new drivers sometimes speed back to school, often without having time to even open their lunch. 

Other factors of longer lunch include the need for breaks between classes. In the past few years, research in health and learning has grown exponentially, but stress management is almost ignored since there are only short breaks between classes, and can be overwhelming. 

In research from neuroscientist Justin Rhodes, exercise increases blood pressure and blood flow everywhere in the body including the brain. In summary, more oxygen and blood flow from physical activities causes our brains to perform better. 

During lunch time, when students are out of seats and moving, or even not focusing on class, a break is beneficial to students mental and physical well being. A solution to this issue is taking about five minutes out of each class in order to add a total of 15 minutes onto lunch. This is a small difference for each class, and a necessary change for the well being of students.