The lunchroom: a place that each student of a public high school is entitled to visit daily. However, at Seminole High School, it seems that they are not entitled to sitting.

Seminole High School currently has a student population of around 3,400 students. The student lunches are broken into first and second lunch in order to evenly divide the students; each lunch has 1,700 students in attendance. However, only a fraction of these children are entitled to a seat at all.

Junior Melissa Hyder says, “I sit on the floor mostly, so I don’t use the tables much. But I would, actually, if there were more of them. It is really hot out there, which is another reason I sit on the floor out there under the cover.”

As of April 13, there were 720 seats available inside and 860 seats outside, not including the seven benches that sit about three people each. This adds up to 1,580 seats; still, it can’t be assumed that all of these seats are occupied by students and not schoolbags. In addition to the obvious lack of seating that leaves at least 150 students without a seat at lunch, only 240 of the 860 seats outside are under an overhang or in a shady area. This leaves 620 students in the sun and 150 of the same students without a seat. Something about that seems wrong.

These same students that are left in the sun and often without a seat, due to the competitiveness of high school students for lunchroom sitting, are told they are neither allowed to sit inside a building at lunchtime or with a teacher. While it is understandable that they are not permitted in the building, the idea that 860 students are forced to sit out in heat that has an average between 82-92 degrees from April-October is ridiculous. This is not including humidity, breezes—or the lack therefore of—, and sun which causes extreme burns.

“There’s not a lot of tables inside so nearly half the lunch is sitting outside, and I think a lot of people try to control the tables. It’s like a zone or district to them,” says junior Joshua Mathis.

While it can be argued sitting outside for a half hour in the sun or standing for a half hour ‘isn’t that bad,’ imagine that the only time you regularly have to eat food in a seven hour period of time is in a sweltering environment while you stand or, if you’re lucky, are continuously elbowed by people you may not know nor like.

There are simple solutions to these problems which include allowing students to sit with teachers or adding a third lunch, or, at the very least, adding more overhangs outside. Until then, students will continue to lack seats at lunch and suffer through long.