The underclass says it’s for food, and the upperclass says it’s for war: these days, the high school cafeteria has become more of a battlefield than a place to simply eat. When newcomers at the high school look for somewhere to have lunch for the first time, they are not taught, but must learn their place.
“As if we didn’t make it clear during the all-school assembly in early September, we’ll make sure to say it again in the Student Handbook,” said senior class officer Alan Troy ’25. “We’re already lobbying the School Committee for edits to next year’s version, our primary revision being Section 4, p. 43: “Cafeteria”.”
That section currently states that “students who use the cafeteria have the right to and should expect to find a clean table at which to eat.” In reality, it’s not just any table they can sit at. Freshmen and sophomores must eat in the body of the cafeteria, while juniors and seniors can sit in their own sections by the courtyard windows.
“The boundaries are very real, so it only makes sense they be codified,” said Troy. “The work the Lobby’s been doing is crucial to creating a culture that, despite the visible separation, will ultimately bring all of us in the high school together.”
In the meantime, as the school administration hesitates to act beyond the Handbook on cafeteria rules, the Lunch Lobby, as it calls itself, is taking matters into its own hands. Students have started to take over faculty lunch duties to patrol the tables, outsourcing the teachers’ burdens as well.
“We’re only the quasi-enforcers of good student conduct when it’s us teachers on lunch duty,” said Ms. Brianna Seong, a history teacher at the high school. “It just makes sense that it’s the students themselves facilitating real studentship. It means we don’t even have to do our jobs sometimes.”
The Lobby implemented these student shifts through its affiliation with the high school’s National Honor Society (NHS) chapter, which is offering half a service hour for any of its junior and senior members to police the cafeteria. Attracting a body of upperclassmen who might not bond any other way, the volunteer opportunity has created somewhat of a diverse student coalition.
Vicky Padilla ’25 completed her first semester’s ten-hour service requirement as a junior with just lunch duty shifts, shortly after her induction. “I still find myself returning to the cafeteria, even after I maxed out my patrolling hours, just to give the kids a good smack when they need it. It’s basically a habit now.”
“That’s what we’re all about, having students embody genuine volunteerism alongside one another,” said Mr. Preston Vargas, the NHS advisor. “Our pillars of scholarship, character, leadership, and service become second nature to our members this way.”
Without the manpower of the yet-to-be inducted junior class, the NHS-run lunch patrols this year have been so far lackluster – students are taking on more radical, independent means to sustain the movement. It’s since branched off into a far less diplomatic campaign.
This year’s all-school kickoff assembly, which took place in early September, snowballed into what would become the lunch strife’s turning point. Junior and senior class officers jointly stated that everyone must sit in their grade’s section, “or else.” After the upperclass erupted into applause, chanting “raider pride in class divide,” the rally got violent before administrators ended it abruptly.
“All I recall was one of the juniors pushing me out of my own lane during the shirt relay, I don’t know who,” said Maya Pock ’27, who participated in the grade-to-grade competitions during the assembly. “I think it’s because I’m concussed.”
Meanwhile, some underclassmen, who have already faced the brute end of the juniors and seniors, are finding an alternative to the war right outside of the cafeteria. “I looked at the cafeteria over the balcony, which was when I realized how stupid all of this was,” said Nicolás Polanco ’28. “I just got my friends to eat with me in other places like the alcove. It’s that easy to opt out.”
The Lunch Lobby started assigning lunch duties to those areas shortly after Polanco’s election to freshman class officer. It most recently celebrated getting the high school administration to reserve spaces outside of the cafeteria for privilege pass holders only, in addition to outdoor areas – leaving little overflow space for freshmen and sophomores.
“Our section in the cafeteria probably has the most open seats now,” said Tyler Wexler ’26. “But thankfully, the freshmen and sophomores we displaced can’t sit there anyways, because lunch patrol will always be there for us, even when we’re not, well, there.”
Other organizations, like Journeys, the upperclass-led orientation program for freshmen and sophomores, have also begun working the philosophy of the Lunch Lobby into their own mission, advisory by advisory.
“Our district logo is the compass for a reason: you must know your place, where you should be, and shouldn’t be,” said Journeys Ambassador Alya Reynault ’26. “Seeing the students in each grade put their differences aside, and become neighbors for a lifetime based on something as random as their age, I think is remarkable.”