There’s never any time

by Blake Thompson

Running stop signs, pulling U-turns, and exceeding speed limits. Too many FHS students have been forced to partake in these risky activities when heading off-campus to lunch. They almost have to drive recklessly, so they won’t be counted tardy. Lunch should be a time when students are able to relax and enjoy their meals. Lunch shouldn’t be a time riddled with stress and anxiety from hurrying back to school.

Until recently, I haven’t seen much of an attempt to do anything about extending the lunch break. Sure, the class officers always say they’ll try to get longer lunches, but they never follow through. Finally, however, somebody has been wise enough to devise a way to deal with the lunch dilemma.

Flathead sophomores Anna Kraft, Kevin Auge and Melissa Beck have issued a petition to get an extension on the lunches.  The petition asks the school board to take three minutes off of each class period, so that 21 minutes could be added to the lunches. Their assumption is, if they could get 500 student signatures to support the petition, that eventually they get the attention of the school board. Eventually, they’ll turn it over to the student council’s Zach Mann. He would then hand it over to the school board.

Wouldn’t people be more relaxed if they had an extra 21 minutes to get to their off-campus destination and back to school? Of course. Everybody is in a hurry to get lunch at a fast food joint, throw down a burger and fries on the way back to school and rush to their class. Many times students have to wait in line at least 10 minutes to even get their orders taken. There’d be far fewer problems in traffic if  an extra 21 minutes were added onto the lunch break.

A longer lunch would definitely be a benefit to the student body. The petition is one of the few ways that we as students are able to speak out to the school board as one voice.  So if you see the petition, sign it!

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