How are 40 minute lunch periods affecting students?

By:Brianna Navarrete (Staff Writer)

At GWHS, students are experiencing a very rushed lunch period due to it only being 40 minutes. The current 40 minute lunch period is causing students to rush eating as well as being late to class according to many students. Many  students report that 40 minutes is not enough time for lunch.

This issue affects almost all students who don’t bring their own lunch or eat school lunch. About the 40 minute lunch period, a student who attends wash stated, “if me and my friends want to go somewhere besides the pizza joint (which is a food place a block away from school) we have to wait in a really long line, and then wait at least 10 minutes for our food. We have no time to sit down and eat, we have to eat on the bus or while walking while also rushing back to school.” School officials implemented the current schedule around the 2010’s. This has been affecting students for years, and nothing has been done to change it.

It is estimated that students spend at least 10 minutes walking, waiting in line/for their food or the bus. A student observed that the only place we could go off campus to and make it back to school on time is the pizza joint, which is usually packed with students and the food is mostly gone after a couple minutes. Records show that lunch break now compared to the way it was around 25 years ago is very different. Prior to the schedule change, the lunch period was a lot better. The period was a lot longer and the school provided a lot more food options closer to school. Beyond lunch time constraints, students have to deal with very limited food options that aren’t the best, rushing to eat as well as having to sit on the hallway floors due to lack of indoor seating. According to health experts, rushing eating can affect your digestive system, causing us to become bloated. The impact extends to missing class, health issues, and adding stress to students. 

According to SFUSD, most schools in San Francisco have a lunch break of 40-45 minutes with an exception of a few that receive an hour. Similar situations at other schools have shown that students don’t even have the option of open campus, so their only food option is school lunch which many students complain about. 

Potential changes could include changing the schedule for all students, providing us at least 10 minutes more of lunch. This will positively affect many students' lives mentally, physically, and academically. 

By Maira Mirza (Layout Editor) & Prathna Rathanak (Photography Editor)

George Washington dance ticket sales have dropped a lot in the past few years, with Cupid’s Ball taking the brunt of it. With financial problems and differing student interests, the future of GWHS dances seems uncertain.

The Cupid’s Ball, which just recently happened, had a low turnout, with the ticket sales just barely covering the costs. ASB dance manager Sophie Kuang confirmed that the sales were low: only 200 were sold, decreasing by 510 since homecoming and this makeup for the canceled winter ball due to even lower sales. Many students, both upper and underclassmen talked about how high ticket prices and lack of enthusiasm were reasons for skipping out. 

Due to excessive costs, many students skip school dances, which include junior prom. In this case, our school has canceled it entirely. ASB hasn't even considered subsidizing or reducing the cost of tickets for students to afford due to lower house income and inflation making it unreasonable to a lot of students. According to ASB Director Murphy Thomas “ Attendance for dances has been decreasing by 100 every year due to loss of interest in attending as students aren't willing to pay for overpriced tickets”

With the decline in attendance, George Washington High School is struggling to keep school dances alive. The rising costs for venues, entertainment, and decorations make it more difficult to afford unless ticket sales are sufficient. Some students said they preferred to spend their time and money on other activities such as concerts, jobs, and plans that might seem more appealing to them due to the increase of disconnection of traditional school dances and students have made it even harder to spark interest towards such events. 

Additionally, technology, specifically social media, has played a huge role in the tendency to attend in-person events as most people prefer to get things done online as it is much quicker and less hectic while saving a lot of time. Lastly, some students often choose to prioritize their academic, extracurricular, and private matters so they choose to opt out of dances.

One of the biggest factors affecting attendance is ticket pricing. A lot of students have said that they don’t want to pay the high price of the ticket, especially after considering other costs like outfits and accessories. “I have to pay for my ticket and then buy a dress, shoes, etc. so I just don’t think it’s worth it,” one junior stated. ASB dance manager also mentioned how a majority of ticket sales go to the cost of the venues but a majority of students noted how they would prefer to have the dances at school with lower ticket prices instead of other places. 

Alumni sponsorship is one possible resolution to solve the issues of low attendance and the increasing expenses. There might be former students who might have strong ties to our school and are more than ready to sponsor events or donate funds to reduce current students. By seeking alumni support, we may be able to subsidize ticket prices, provide financial aid to students who want to attend the events, and even cover the cost of the venue and decorations costs without having to worry about losing money.

Lower-income and inflation play a significant role in dropping the drop in attendance at dances. Many families are struggling financially due to the cost of living and inflation after the pandemic making it more difficult for them to finance formal school events such as prom, winter ball, and much more. These events add to the financial burden that leads to students being unable to attend due to the cost of tickets, transportation, clothing, and other expenses. Most low-income families can't afford dances that don't seem necessary. These financial issues result in the growing expenses of ordinary commodities and the inability of students to attend a major high school tradition. 

School dances used to be a big deal, but for a lot of students, they just don’t seem worth it anymore. Many of them would rather hang out with smaller groups of friends than spend money on an event that might not live up to expectations. Overall, it’s not a surprise that attendance is dropping. 

If school dances are going to be revived, there has to be change. There have been suggestions like lowering prices, better venues, and overall better music/food/activities. Some also want more unique themes since a lot feel that they’re very repetitive. ASB has tried promoting the dances through banners and social media posts, but ultimately without student interest, the attendance is going to keep declining. If nothing improves, dances like Spring and Winter Ball will struggle to get ticket sales in the future.

By:  Kristopher Hsieh (Staff Writer)

With the addition of the 7 period bell schedule, the students at George Washington High School, majority who are non seniors, are at a new peak of suffering from overscheduling leading to deprivation of sleep, continuous pollinated stress, and thorns stabbing at their mental and physical health.

This has become an issue because teens are stuck in a depressive cycle and a one track mindset. In the 21st century, students are losing their divergent thinking because they focus too much on what will get them into college rather than their own wellbeing and enjoying the final years of their youth. Overscheduling has not been an issue that has been addressed because the sole person to blame is usually the student. Meanwhile, nobody factors in the confounding variables such as what drove this student to overschedule themselves. By highschool, your parents most definitely can’t force you into any extracurriculars or classes against your own will. However, they can still pressure you into the mindset of doing anything to get into a good college, which they weigh as the whole value of your future.

I talked to 40 students at George Washington High School who are victims of the new 7 period bell schedule and all of them have the same feeling of stress. Despite whether they're taking multiple hard classes or just one or even none, each of them feels overscheduled in one way or another. An anonymous senior told me they felt like their classes really dictated what they did outside of school. They explained how because they took hard classes such as AP Biology and didn’t know how stressed they would be until they realized the level of memorization required for that course. As a result, they decided to cut down on their extracurriculars such as volunteer work this year despite having a love for helping their community. This student says, “if I continued to volunteer at my program everyday, I would only have an hour to do my homework as opposed to only having 3 hours right now.” They also emphasized the importance of taking a free period. According to them, “if you take a free period, you will be saving sleep whether it’s first period or seventh period.”

The benefits of taking a free period are even greater now that Washington offers 7 classes. Menlocoa.org states that taking a free period allows you to destress and reorganize your thoughts. It also provides you with time to do your homework. This website also pointed out that free periods are times where you can talk to a teacher who may not have a class that period. Even before the 7 period bell schedule was implemented, a lot of people felt stressed. If you are already overscheduled with hard classes or extracurriculars, taking a free period off might save you a lot of unnecessary stress in the present and future. Plus, with the addition of 7th period, that’s one extra class to be stressed about if you aren’t taking a free period.

A lot of students at George Washington High School have expressed major disapproval with the recent changes to the bell schedule and said because the 7 classes were an option, they felt obligated to take all 7 classes which sent them into a spiral of no sleep, stress from being overscheduled, and damage to their mental and physical health. As a junior who is part of 3 difficult APs including Calculus, part of the swim team, and other extracurriculars, Amy says her advice for any other student who might fall victim to overscheduling is to know themselves and if they are taking 3 APs and 7 classes, definitely don’t do a sport or CCSF classes.

The feeling of being overscheduled and having a lot of stress doesn’t just stem from schoolwork. It can grow from your activities outside of school too. Extracurriculars are ways that a student can enhance their skills outside of school and do things they love on top of being good resume builders for college. However, this can add to less time in your schedule for basic necessities and a rushed routine. Even just one extracurricular can mess up your schedule depending on how hard your classes in school are.

According to Stress.org, 75% of highschool students report feelings of boredom, anger, sadness and fear due to schoolwork. There’s a difference between good stress and bad stress. But when does stress reach its breaking point? When stress starts to manifest itself into your everyday routine, that’s when we have to stop and analyze the root of the cause. In the case of most high school students, it’s the fact that they are overscheduled. Even if the student isn’t taking what we deem “hard” classes, they can still feel overwhelmed by the amount of work they are getting from school.

A senior who is taking 7 classes with 2 APs and 1 honors course says that this year he feels the most drained. He says by the time he gets home after his youth program, it’s usually 7 and he feels so tired that he must take a nap. By doing this, he usually ends up staying up past midnight to finish his work and he wakes up tired once again. This forces him to have to retreat into a nap the next day too. He says with this new bell schedule, the extra class he took was that extra AP and it ended up ruining his entire workflow. He said being overscheduled was a combination of his extracurriculars such as his youth program as well as the 7 classes from school. “You either sacrifice your grades or you sacrifice your sleep. There’s no in between,” he states with exasperation. 

Of course, there are exceptions to this. One of those being if the student lives close to school. As a student who lives over an hour away from school, on a normal day where I don’t have extracurricular activity afterschool, I find myself getting home at about 5:30. This is pretty late considering I have to eat and wash up all while doing my homework. This is only the ideal routine without considering any hiccups along the way such as having to do chores, having to study for a test, etc.

As the stress of being overscheduled still reigns triumphant within teens of our generation, there are a few steps we can take going forward. We could tackle our stress before it even happens by talking to advisors or our peers. One good example of this could be talking to your counselor in the spring to ask for his or her advice on whether or not he or she thinks you should take the courses you are about to choose. Another way you could do this is by asking previous students in those courses. One thing my counselor told me that was very helpful was that I could drop courses in the first few weeks of school. As a result, after the first day of AP Chemistry, I dipped. I know myself and I’m glad I made that decision as AP Calculus is a course that has sent me to hell and back, and that’s not even on the only AP I’m involved in.