Discipline for students who don’t clean up after themselves
Instead of a leisurely 20-minute, mid-morning break for brunch, Gilroy High School students spent that time confined to the classroom.
Just for today, Principal James Maxwell has decreed that brunch is canceled because day after day, since the beginning of the school year, the students have left the remains of their snacks scattered about school with little regard for campus cleanliness, Maxwell said.
When the bell rang at 9:55 a.m., Maxwell, campus supervisors and a message over the intercom directed students straight to their next period. Doors to the cafeteria were locked. The reason for the ban: “The kids think it’s like a restaurant. They think they can just leave their trash,” Maxwell said. With the equivalent of only one and a half custodians during the day, Maxwell said they don’t have the staffing to perform their regular custodial duties and clean up after unruly students.
“Why don’t they just pick up their trash?” muttered a student as he walked through the front gates and was directed toward his third period class.
“Brunch is a privilege, not a right,” Maxwell said.
Parents of students who receive free and reduced lunch were concerned with the break being pulled from the day’s schedule. However, Maxwell said that the school is not obliged to provide brunch for its students. By law, only one free and reduced meal is required per day and lunch and breakfast both fulfill that requirement, he said.
“We warned and warned them and they ignore it,” he said of the ongoing problem.
GHS campus supervisor, Rachel Lerma, has been looking after students for 33 years and has dealt with trash strewn about campus for most of them.
“It’s always been a problem,” she said.
With the “almost unanimous” support of teachers, Maxwell finally put his foot down. After the bell rang, he and administrators corralled students back into classrooms, with a few reluctant stragglers receiving a stern eye.
“Yesterday was actually pretty clean since they started making announcements about brunch being canceled,” said Lucas Sandoval, 16. “But this will probably make some kids angry. They (the administration) should have thought it through better.”
Nonetheless, Maxwell hopes the lack of brunch today will show students that their actions have consequences.
