Like any other public highschool in America, Neuqua Valley has its own lunch system that allows students to pick up a meal for the day. Especially with the free food that has been handed out this year, way more students show up to the lunch lines in order to get some grub that’s better than nothing.

With this influx of students, though, a new problem arises in the school which is the challenge of managing these lunch lines. I don’t think it takes a genius to be able to see just how bad the lines get minutes after option periods begin. The crowd control ropes only go so far out to the point where you have at least 50 students piling up throughout the entire cafeteria. With these unkempt lines comes the problem of scoundrels wanting to cut the lines in whichever way they can. From what I’ve seen, the main ways are either finding some careless kid at any part of the line to just squeeze through or just having someone in the line signal for someone to come behind them and allow them to cut the line.
I have tried contacting staff about this, but they seem very inactive. The most that one of the deans could say to me (in a seemingly nonchalant manner) was that he’ll “look into it.” Just like the problem with the bathroom, which has gotten worse and my points about the staff were actually very correct, people who are in a position of power do not want to do much here because they sadly don’t care. I might try to ask more staff about this as in getting more supervisors inside the area where the lines are held to control things better, but as always, I think this may just be another exclusively student issue.

We students cannot just depend on the staff to fix our issues when it’s the general cowardice of many who can’t even stand up to these idiots in the first place. For me, I can’t say I’ve been all that good at standing up either. It’s easy to just see someone cut you directly and let it happen because you think it may cause a scene, but that only exposes you as being more weak to those who are willing to take advantage of others.

A couple times I’ve contemplated how I’d stand up to people who specifically try to cut me. If someone tried to nudge in front of me I’d have to stand my ground and even get a little bit physical with them by blocking them from getting in front. If I was really annoyed I would try doing a self defense mechanism that is inherently non violent but assertive. It would be where in a last ditch effort I use my spread out hands to clap loudly right in front of the perpetrator’s face. It would mess with their sense of hearing and given how close my hands are yet not doing anything harmful, they are then put in an awkward position to just do nothing but back up.

I think for anyone reading this, the easiest advice I have is to simply stand up for yourself if someone thinks they can actually cut you in line. Simply telling them works so much more than just standing there and allowing it to happen. Even if they ignore your confrontation, they know they can’t just continue to use you again for they have no idea what you could end up doing next time it happens.