Many students at MBHS have questions and concerns regarding the current policy about bringing in open food items and drinks back from lunch, especially why this is such an issue. This has been a hot button topic lately because the administration has been cracking down on the rules. I myself had questions about this so I decided to investigate. Current MBHS senior Kalyn and I decided to write a proposal to change the policy based on the knowledge we had of why the policy exists. As it turns out, we were very wrong about why the policies are set in place.

Kalyn and I spent three days asking students around MBHS during passing periods and at lunch why they think the policy exists and how they feel about it. An overwhelming amount of people either said “I don’t know why, but it’s stupid” or “I don’t see a real reason for the policy, and we have never had it explained to us clearly.”

This presented a different problem which caused us to back track. We started from scratch and went to Principal Conway to clarify exactly why this policy exists because we realized we also don’t know why this policy is set in place. We asked first and foremost exactly what the policy states, word for word, because there are different interpretations depending on which member of the administration you ask. We then asked about why the policy exists and the answer we got was one that never even crossed our minds. He said “Well, for one, not bringing in outside food is a building wide policy set in place by the DOE. This is because sanitation needs to be maintained in the classrooms and if food is brought in and left lying around, rodents can enter the building and cause an ongoing issue.”

This answer definitely made sense and brought clarity, but there was another part that was definitely unexpected. “Food from outside can’t be brought into the building because we can’t set up a situation where we are competing with the cafeteria. That’s also why bake sales aren’t officially allowed to take place in the building during school hours. Because the cafeteria makes revenue from school lunch which is the city’s money.” This was far off from why we originally thought the rules were set in place, that admin was afraid of spillage and students getting burned with hot beverages.

After going over the results of our interview with the principal, we agreed to rescind the petition we had filed to have the policy lifted because we realized we would have to go much farther than just our school admin and reaching the DOE. Changing their policy would be nearly impossible.