By: Umaima Younus, Nina Mellits, Rashidat Komolafe, Entisar Mohamed (Senn Students)
Students protested changes to the lunch policy at Senn High School on Monday, October 25 because it required assigned places for students to eat.
The new policy was applied partially due to the colder temperatures outside as well as recent discipline issues at the school.
The protest was scheduled for three hours but was cut short an hour early.
Sophomore Myvy Lam said, ”Our voices were somewhat heard.”
Many students at Senn felt it was hard getting their teachers to listen to their concerns they had.
After the protest was held, Climate and Culture Coordinator Wendy Boatman sent out a Google Form to students allowing them to decide whether they wanted to stay where they were assigned or whether they wanted to change their lunch space. Students stayed calm after the form was sent out because then they had a choice of where they were going to sit.
Student Ariana Martin said, “I was assigned a lunch space in the library, and all my friends were assigned in the cafeteria. I submitted the google form that was sent by Ms. Boatman and had my lunch space changed to cafeteria.”
A lot of people had different opinions on the protest. Many people were concerned that the protest didn’t actually serve as a way to get people’s voices out.
”Democracy is important, students’ voices need to be heard, but people were foolish with bad behavior of some of the kids,” Boatman said.
Many people argued the protest was not organized as well as it should have been.
“I thought more people would have signs and a plan for what they would have to say to the administration but it was pretty chaotic,” sophomore Ramiyah Lee said.
Administration and student council were present in the protest, but many students felt it was quite hard reaching out to them.
Ramiyah Lee, a sophomore at Senn High School said, “The protest made me want to organize myself. There are probably other things that could come up that could require a protest.”
Myvy Lam said, ”It was messy. People just wanted to get out of class, there was a lack of information.”
Students were not penalized for missing class during that school day.
Wendy Boatman, a counselor at Senn said, “Students wanted to choose where their lunch space was to be. They did and all switches were done by Monday, Nov 7.”
The students at Senn used their voices and the Senn staff listened and adapted, making changes around the new school lunch policy.
