Lunchtime. A time to stretch our legs, sit with friends and eat our share of Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and then some. Another year has begun and students are already getting into the daily motion of chew, swallow and repeat. But with this new school year, an old problem still remains. The bell rings, the students race out the door and a warzone of trays and half-eaten food remain for the staff members to clean up.

Every student has seen it. Students have left their trays instead of clearing it at one time or another. But bad habits are just that, bad, and they have to be addressed. If students can’t have enough responsibility to take their plastic tray from point A to point B, how are we ever going to finish that college resume, or stay on the Principal’s Honor Roll? This laziness goes farther than the lunchroom. It affects everyone at North.

The bulk of the conflict lies in the clearing area. In order to clear trays, students have to weave in and out of their peers crowding around the doors waiting for the bell. As lunch goes on, the crowd grows and grows until a hundred students stand between you and a clean lunchroom. A clear path should be kept leading into the room to clear trays. A line system is used to get your food. A line can also be used to clear it. Be respectful of your fellow students. Leave a path so you can keep your lunchroom clean and set a good example.

The staff members on lunch duty do a very good job of providing a way to throw away our trash without students moving a muscle. Every lunch, they wheel around two or three trash bins, getting sauce on their hands and waiting for students to finally make that crumpled wrapper in from three feet away. This is strictly our teachers being helpful and trying to curb a problem the student body could have fixed a long time ago, and if it isn’t fixed soon, students are going to wish they took the 10 extra steps.

Imagine a lunchroom where you get your food, you sit down, you eat it and then you clear it. After you’re done you sit down again and you wait until the bell. There is no going and seeing friends at another table or standing at the doors because you just can’t wait to get back to math class. If the students don’t solve this problem, extreme measures will be taken to instill a solution.

Every time you leave your tray, you leave a message, saying North students are lazy and expect others to do things for them. Every time we clear our tray, our message is that we responsible and we respect our school. Something as simple as lunch trays can sway the pride of the North.

So keep yourself accountable, keep your friends accountable and keep your lunchroom clean. This will make your lunchroom monitors happier which will allow you more leeway. Respect and integrity are in the little things, have pride in your tribe, North.