The Lincoln Log

Like a bird in a cage, the students of Abraham Lincoln High School were confined within the walls of school, unable the “fly” around wherever we wished. We were prisoners in our own campus, forced to stay within locked gates and heavily guarded doors. Prior to its campus being closed, lunch used to be a fun 45-minute session where students congregated among their friends and walked around the campus with ease and freedom.

It was a stress-free break from the busy work-loaded day students has to face, five days a week. How did being watched relieve any stress? It didn’t. Furthermore, it probably even contributed to more anxiety, knowing that you were being watched closely, and that your chances of getting away with slight rule-breaks were slimmer than ever. The closed campus restricted us to an extremely small space—not even the whole campus was allowed to the students. Inconvenient boundaries were set in the school depending on what lunch students had. Over 2,500 students were restricted to the limited space the school had to offer. The seclusion of students with different lunch schedules also created a problem. A bigger problem was that clubs weren’t able to meet during lunch. Most students, like me, definitely didn’t go to the meetings held after school, because frankly, I had better things to do than to stay after school for something I usually stayed in during lunch for. Club participation dramatically declined due to the fact that meetings were held after school. Students, just out of sheer lack of initiative and self-motivation, choose not to attend any more club meetings.

The lunch schedules alone were highly impractical—especially for the students who had lunch A, which should be renamed brunch A because it was so early. I was hardly even hungry during the time because I ate breakfast not so long ago. But when 5th period approaches, I was starved. The quality of the cafeteria lunch wasn’t and still isn’t good at all. Maybe once in a while, actual food would appear behind counters and would actually taste good but it’s not very common.

Tensions between certain cliques or just people in general began to arise and heat up within crowded courtyards. This would result in what seemed to be inevitable conflict because apprehension between people certainly increased within tight spaces. I’m not implying there was no valid reason in closing campus. This newly found rule definitely worked nonetheless, less people cut class and were more cautious when it came to having electronics out. Combined with the crackdown on electronics and the toughening of the teachers, this definitely scared me into not leaving school.

I believe the intimidation factor plays a huge role in having these students participate in the closed-campus lunch.As we look back at those short weeks, we begin to appreciate the good lunches we are allowed to buy off campus and the things we are allowed to do that would get us into trouble elsewhere.