Since the move to the new building, it had been a rule that freshmen and sophomores were not allowed upstairs for lunch. However, this year the administration changed that rule to allow underclassmen to be upstairs. Many upperclassmen were unhappy with that decision. Recently a petition has been circulating to change the rule back.

“Last year we were able to be upstairs as juniors and seniors and get work done and hang out and it’d be a quiet place to eat or study during lunch,” Brody Shaw (12) said, “that’s why I started this petition to bring back that kind of peace back up there.”

Some teachers we spoke to said they felt there is no reason to have the underclassmen upstairs now that Star Buffs is downstairs where anyone can access it. They also said underclassmen cause unneeded stress and problems and are often unnecessarily loud.

Principal Claudia Cooper feels things have been running smoothly so far.

“…there really hasn’t been a lot of extra people up there. It’s actually been really nice,” Cooper said. “Typically, most of our juniors and seniors go out to lunch anyway, so they’re not usually sitting upstairs. So the few freshmen and sophomores that are sitting up there, they’re usually pretty quiet. They’re in their small group, but there’s not been any issues with that.

But many juniors in particular say that it’s unfair for underclassmen to be upstairs when they weren’t allowed up there before and they had to wait two years for the opportunity.

“I felt very happy that we finally got a petition for it because we as juniors had to wait a while to get upstairs, and we always got caught or got in trouble for it because they hunted us down because of it. But now y’all just let the freshmen and sophomores just go up there, so it becomes an issue between everybody,” Alycee Hoover (11) said.

When we spoke to Cooper, she hadn’t yet heard of the petition but said she was open to considering it.

“If there’s a great explanation for it, that would be that it would probably that could sway me,” Cooper said. “Yes, I do want to listen to that. …just gathering a whole bunch of names of people to petition for something is great, and that is the democratic way. But what would be the reason? What would be the purpose to only allow juniors and seniors to eat up there.”

The petition has been presented to the building committee in their meeting on Tuesday October 15th and Ms. Cooper is letting the juniors, seniors and STUCO present their case to her on Friday, Nov. 15 in Mr. Field’s room, 214