Re: “Seattle students ready to fight ‘horrendous’ schedule change” (Sept. 10, Education Lab):
I’m a senior at Ballard High School. I help run our Disability Student Union and am in AP Calculus, both of which will be adversely affected by the newly implemented split lunch.
This policy will negatively affect many of our student unions, including our Black and Brown, Disability, Jewish, Asian, and Multicultural Student Unions. These unions make students feel represented and welcome, and multiple lunches would take away their meeting time and school impact.
Additionally, one of the supports my AP Calculus teacher offers is tutoring during lunch, since our curriculum is very fast-paced and challenging. With the new lunch policy, I won’t be able to access this critical resource, which will affect both my class performance and potentially my AP exam.
While it is a privilege to be able to achieve all of these things during lunch, these changes aren’t creating equity, they’re simply an attempt at equality. A preferable course of action would be finding ways to foster community at schools that require split lunches. The opportunities we have at lunch are important to social and academic growth, and the school board should be working to implement similar spaces districtwide.
Nico Bacon, Seattle
