By Aubrey Butts

The new Loy Norrix school year brings new rules, regulations, and procedures. On Wednesday, September 9th, an announcement was made over the intercom about lunches. Six people per table and four people to a booth. In Advanced Journalism alone, uproar was heard from the students, ranging from exasperations over being treated like five year olds to the simple statistics of how restricting six people per table or four per booth would be possible with such a large student population.

Let’s face it, most students hate change. There are still some sarcastic comments about how useless and annoying IDs are, but overall, ID cards are second nature. Mr. Edwards, principal at Loy Norrix High School, hopes that the new lunch regulation will join the list of disliked, but habit-forming changes made to Loy Norrix.

What is hoped to come from the new regulation is a “process to know procedures,” said Edwards. There are rules implemented in classrooms and hallways, and the lunch schedule has undergone quite a few changes in the last two years alone, mainly to help overcrowding, a big problem with such a large student body.

With such little time between each lunch period, the daunting task of cleaning and resetting the cafeteria after each lunch hour becomes “cumbersome,” said Edwards. The general observation being that the more students at a table, the more trash left behind. Looking presentable, as a school is always an aspiration. Edwards said he always wants to better the school “academically, socially and cosmetically.”  Then again, regardless of where students sit with what regulations, there will still be the same amount of trash.

Currently, the six per table, four per booth rule seems loosely implemented.  First lunch is overcrowded, much like the lunches last year and the lunches this year that pose a problem for those doing lunch clean up. Second lunch seemed less populated, with some tables only having a few students. However, there were obviously still tables with more than six people.  Third lunch was overcrowded as well. Even to the point that certain students are “frustrated because of the lines being long and choosing not to eat,” said Ms. Stevens, Loy Norrix Chemistry teacher.

The administration hope is that as the year goes on, lunches will balance out, making the rule more enforced to reduce overcrowding. “I think, and I suspect with time, that they will work out the bugs,” said Stevens.