After widely spread rumors circulating through the halls at Salida High School, the question can finally be put to rest of if food will be banned within classrooms. After thorough consideration and discussions among staff and board members, it has come to the conclusion of no food allowed in classrooms or hallways. 

After the increase of messes and spills in the classrooms, the threat of no food at all in classrooms began. Dean of Students Abigail Cooksey instated the rule of no cafeteria food in the classrooms. Though food from home could be in the classrooms, the food from the provided school lunches must be eaten in the designated areas such as the cafeteria.

It has also been mentioned that custodial staff members have had to work excessively and unnecessarily hard to avoid larger issues such as messes in classrooms attracting mice or bugs. The staff just wants to put a stop to messes before it becomes one massively large mess that will be much harder to combat. Messes in classrooms affect not only the teachers of those classrooms, but the students, the rest of the staff, and especially the custodians. This issue has been controversial for a pretty long time, and is finally having some action taken because of what it has caused among teachers, students, staff, and classrooms.

The rule of no cafeteria food in the classrooms did not last long. After that rule was implemented into the students lives, the messes and spillage of food brought from home became worse. The custodial staff started to realize that the cleanliness of the classrooms was not improving. This was brought up to the principal, Jesse Hull. Hull was not happy about the messes increasing. He informed the staff members in the school that all food in all classrooms should be prohibited and strictly forbidden. Teachers were to discard or ask to put away students’ food if they tried to eat it in the classrooms or hallways. Many students were not pleased with the new rule that hull had made to restrict the food spills. 

Although there is a complete ban of food anywhere but the provided areas Cooksey said, “for all medical needs, we always require there are exceptions to every single rule.” Meaning that students who suffer from dietary problems and need certain snacks at certain times are exempt from some of these rules, making sure to be inclusive and fair to those students. 

Though many students don’t like the rule, the staff members feel like it is the best solution to the problem at hand. Hopefully the ban of food in classes will decrease the amount of mess in the classes and hallways while letting the custodial staff go back to their regular cleaning schedules and work hours.