Today has been hectic. You’ve been moving nonstop. First block gave you a headache, and second block stressed you out. Spartan period was a drag, but at least you have something to look forward to.

“Yes! Finally, it’s lunch!” you think as you speed-walk down the hall to meet your friends at the cafeteria. You settle in your seat and wait for the rest of your squad to show. Once you’re all there and seated, you can finally relax, or so you thought.

Lunch one on even days has been exclusively targeted to follow the “eight to a table” rule that has all of the students in that lunch period rolling their eyes. These students have been told it is considered a fire hazard to have more than eight seats at a table. However, the rule has only been enforced in one lunch: first lunch on even days. The fact that the rule isn’t being enforced in all lunches isn’t what irritates the students who suffer from the rule; they are frustrated the rule is being enforced in any lunch.

The reason why the rule is driving some students up the wall is simple. It forces friends to alienate their peers. Who wants to be the one kid who got kicked out of their table? How do you even decide who should leave the table? Voting? Playing “eenie meenie miney mo”? The decision would tear your friend group apart. By singling out one person and making them find a new table, you and your friends are forced to exclude that person and take away the one time students have to themselves.

“We work so hard during the school day, and our nights are taken up by activities and homework,” freshman Jill Werbisky said. “Lunch is the only time of the day that we have with our friends to truly chill out.”

This rule is taking the one shred of freedom students have away from them. This is the only time of the school day where friends can get together and let off some steam. Most of the time, students don’t even get to see their friends until lunch, so it should be easy to understand why they want to stay together. It’s no wonder that many kids are frustrated that they are now being watched like hawks and told to move.

I can see the other side of this argument. A fire hazard is serious, but this rule isn’t listed anywhere. Check for yourself: the rule isn’t posted on our school’s website, in our handbook, or in any state laws that regulate schools.

There are many approaches to solving this problem. The most obvious is to split up a table. If you, like my table, have nine seats per table, you are still one person over the table limit, so you have to split up.

Assistant principal Mr. Jason Lilly said that instead of kicking one friend out of the table, I should split up my table more evenly. He suggested that having four friends at one table and five at the other would avoid being a fire hazard while also including all my friends. This was a decent suggestion; however, during the one time of the day I get to be with all my friends, I don’t want to have to choose who I want to be with. I want to enjoy the 40-minute lunch with all of my friends. Even more serious: where would my friends go? If you have been inside the cafeteria, you know that there aren’t any empty tables or empty chairs. Cafeteria seating is first-come-first-serve. We all know that as soon as people get to lunch, they’re fighting over chairs and running to claim their tables.

Of course, I cannot take out my anger about this rule on the teachers who are enforcing it. They are simply doing their job. It’s not them who I want to confront. It is the rule itself.

Mr. Lilly told me that a rule is a rule, and students couldn’t interfere with that.          When I asked him if a student-signed petition would make a difference, he told me that it would not change the rule’s significance.

To me, SLHS is a great school. However, this routine has become a major problem, and while I understand where Mr. Lilly is coming from, I don’t understand why this rule is even enforced at Southern Lehigh.