Dine-in only
Lunches delivered to school are not allowed anymore due to safety concern
Photo by Macy Maynard
Parents are no longer allowed to drop food off for students in the office. Students share mixed feelings on this.
January 11, 2023
Every day, bags from multiple fast food restaurants sit in the office, waiting to be picked up by students. This semester, those bags will no longer be there.
School lunch drop-offs ended in January 2023 for Texas High School. Texarkana ISD’s safety and security committee decided on this in an attempt to make the school safer.
“By having particular drop-off points, we’re able to put more staff and officers at these points to better protect our staff and our students,” Chief of Police Brad Irvin said.
Many people agree that this will make the Texas High staff and students safer.
“We’ve had some situations where food delivery services, such as Doordash and things like that, have misrepresented themselves, claiming that they were someone else,” Principal Patti O’Bannon said.
Many of the school’s staff are all for the end of the drop-offs. Some students even agree for their own safety.
“At the end of the day, I do [think this will make our school safer] because anybody claiming to be somebody’s parent could just walk in,” freshman Griffin White said.
However, some believe that this isn’t really doing anything to help with the safety issues.
“I think it could possibly make our school safer,” senior Edie Carter said. “But since we haven’t had any issues with people bringing lunches before, I don’t really see why it’s an issue now.”
Safety isn’t the only issue that should be taken into account. This change may prove to be a problem for some students who can’t buy their lunch.
“I don’t really have any options now if I forgot my lunch because I don’t have any money for my lunch,” Carter said. “Also I don’t want to pay for food that I don’t really enjoy anyways.”
Some students might not eat due to the new school policy. This restriction on food being dropped off brings to light another issue faced by many Texas High students. Now that students have to pay for lunch, it’s a lot harder for many to get food. However, there may be other options. Due to COVID-19—under the CARES Act—TISD provided all students with free lunch. The average cost for breakfast and lunch combined at Texas High School is $5.30 without this aid.
With the absence of this resource, Texas High School is merely assuming the debt of the students who don’t have money in their accounts due to always having food dropped off.
“We still encourage parents to come and have lunch with their students, as we know how valuable these opportunities can be for both the student and the family,” O’Bannon said in an email to parents.
A few students are considering this opportunity and may ask their parents to come to the school and eat with them.
“I probably will have my mom come eat with me and my friends at some point,” Carter said.
While some students would love to have their parents eat with them so that they could have food brought, others think that they would just become the joke of the school.
“I mean, it would be funny [to have a parent come eat with me] in the moment,” White said. “But afterward, I’d just be known as the dude who let his mommy eat with him.”
Although many students are upset about the change, much of Texas High’s staff believe that this is for the better.
“It does become a safety issue so they’re trying to look at ways to manage those risks,” O’Bannon said. “Although it might not necessarily be a popular thing among students, they just need to keep in mind that safety is the ultimate thing here.”
