Break is currently planned out to be one zone per day with Friday being the day two different zones have break at the same time. Monday is zone one, Tuesday is zone two, Wednesday is zone three, Thursday is zone four, and Friday alternates every week between either zones one and three or zones two and four. This break schedule has been in effect since around October of 2021 and it doesn’t seem as if it’s going to be changing anytime soon.

The original reason the break schedule was changed was due to fights. Many underclassmen and a few upperclassmen were involved in fights on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis.  Changes had to be made to fix the fighting problem. I understand that the fighting had to be resolved and that the new break schedule would help it. However, I do not understand why this absurd new break is still in effect. 

In the four months that the new break has been in effect, we have not had a single fight! If the reason we had to change the way we do break was to stop fights, then how come when the fighting has stopped we still have the current break plan? It is unfair to the students who have never fought who can no longer see their friends because they are down a different zone. After just one month we should have gone back to our original break, or at least transition to the next phase of break schedule. We only have fixed zones scheduled together, such as zone one/zone three and zone two/zone four. It is great that these zones aren’t fighting each other, but how can you accurately say that it is very fair or effective. I believe that at the very least we should alternate the 2 zones that have break together, in order to either find the problem of where the fighting takes place, or to give everyone a chance to be with their friends. 

When we have a fixed pairing of zones for break, it doesn’t really give the chance to find out where the fighting problem is. Yes, we haven’t had a fight in four months, but we also haven’t found the root of the fighting. With this logic in mind, it might not even be just 2 zones that don’t get along, but maybe the grade level. If we replaced the zones that go to break with the grades that go to break, we could figure out what grade has the most problems. It is unfair that everyone should suffer the consequences of one grade. For example, if freshmen were to have break on a Monday and a fight were to break out, then we would know that freshmen have problems handling themselves and getting along with each other. With that in mind, you could remove break for that grade level and continue letting the other grades have break. On Fridays, all grades should have break together, to mingle and see their friends from other grades and such. If all the grades can’t get along, then it will go back to being one grade having break each day. This would not only be fair, but also help solve the problem of fighting. If one whole grade can’t have break for a certain amount of time, they will feel guilty and left out. Which in turn will make them want to behave better in order to keep their break when they get it back.

When we go for a while without any fights happening, we should return to our original break schedule. We shouldn’t keep things the way they are if the fighting problem has been solved. Everyone is tired of the way break is now, they view it as unnecessary and that it has gone on for too long. Even some teachers agree that we should have our original break back. If we had the new break schedule as a punishment, then when do we get our reward for acting correctly? It feels as though the office hasn’t changed the break back just for their benefit. It isn’t benefiting the students. Isn’t that what break is for though, to give students a break in the day to relax, go to the bathroom, eat breakfast, and have a conversation with friends they can’t see otherwise? Right now only students in certain zones get to experience this once, maybe twice a week. However, for the office and staff that oversee break, it means fewer students to worry about and watch over. The new break makes things easier for the teachers and staff. They don’t have to worry about fights anymore because they haven’t given any chance of a fight starting. But in doing so, they are saying they still don’t trust us.

Break was made for students, it is unfair that all students have to suffer through this new break when it was only certain people and grades that did all the fighting in the first place. If one player on a football team got flagged and benched, would it be fair to bench all of the players, even the ones on the opposing team? No, it wouldn’t. We are all being punished for something only certain people did. Those certain people, and everyone else, have not had a single fight in four months. It’s time to stop the absurd new break and go back to the way it was before.