By Jayelin Haines
Nobody likes to feel uncomfortable or excluded and that what the new Batavia High School tables do for students. BHS acquired new lunch tables back in 2018 and for the most part, students are not impressed nor am I. The tables are uncomfortable and non-inclusive to friend groups or individuals.
During lunchtime, I want to relax for a little before entering the next half of the day. With the new tables, it’s hard to do that because they took away the chairs and replaced them with stools connected to the tables. These stools are angled in towards the table and have no backs. This leaves most students uncomfortable and wanting to sit in a real chair.
According to the Cleveland Clinic (.org), one of the best ways to relieve stress is to relax. The best way to do that is to be comfortable and these tables are not helpful. The stools are also very small leaving some people more uncomfortable than others. Bringing back the chairs and tables would deal with most of these problems and benefit the students.
The limited amount of tables leave a lot of groups and individuals without a table. These students either sit on the ground in the atrium or the hall. They would be able to sit in the lunchroom if there were enough seats for everyone. Sitting on the ground at lunch is very dirty and is both unsanitary and uncomfortable.
Some people argue the opposite. They believe that the tables are more inclusive to those who may not have friends to sit with. This is not true because if you have more than eight friends then you have to get to a big table and there are only a few of those in the whole cafeteria. If the stools are all taken, that last friend (or friends) has to go find another group to sit with or they are forced to stand. The tables cause students to stress during the only break that they have.
According to an NYU study, 49 percent of high school students are stressed. Of that 49 percent, 31 percent of that is somewhat stressed and the remaining percentage is at an unhealthy level. This percentage could go down by going back to chairs so that students can pull up extra chairs and all friends can be included.
The tables lack the comfort that students need during their breaks and bringing back chairs would fix this problem. High school is a time for its students to find themselves and have fun with the friends they have had through almost their whole life. The friends they may not see often after high school. This inclusivity and lack of comfort caused by the tables defeats the point of having a long lunch block. This is why I believe that bringing back the old tables would benefit the school much more than the new ones.