Tower time take 2

Tower Time needs to return.

  It was a short-lived option in 2012 that offered certain students a one hour lunch everyday.

  Tower Time was intended to help students who were struggling in classes to get extra help during the school day.  Some other Wake County schools offer a version of Tower Time in a.concept called Smart Lunch.

  Students who had a low grade in any of their classes they would be required to go to the class to receive help from their teacher.   Good grades enabled a  to enjoy a full hour of lunch.

  “I was a freshman when Tower Time got taken away. Even though we only had it for a few days it was still awesome” senior Lee Groon said.

  The one-hour lunch option was offered to juniors and seniors the first quarter of school.  Many of them went off campus for lunch.  When sophomores and freshmen were allowed the one–hour lunch second quarter, a situation got out of hand in the cafeteria.

   One reason to offer students longer lunches is that it will help prevent obesity.  Short lunches can make students overweight because when one eats quickly, one does not pay attention to the quality or quantity of food and can overeat.  The food receptors in the brain alert the body when it is time to stop eating don’t process until 20 minutes after the first bite.

   “I finally figured out why I’m fat. It’s the schools fault because they make me eat so fast” junior Jackson Montgomery said.

 Lunch is only 35 minutes long and on Caps Class days it’s five minutes shorter.

 This is particularly short for juniors and seniors who leave campus.   If you eat lunch on campus not much time is lost, but if you go off campus, especially if you go to the pit, you lose a lot of time during the walk to and from.

     If a junior or senior with an off-campus lunch pass plans to go eat lunch at a restaurant then they will be have to be speedy in order to get to class on time. Places like McDonald’s and Chick fil A are very popular spots to eat out but if there is a long line you might not be able to get back to class on time. Going to a sit down restaurant to eat lunch is almost out of the picture because of the cramped lunch schedule.

  “I park in the pit and since I have to walk down there during lunch I don’t have much time to eat,” junior Will Hensley said.

  Tower Time was suspended in 2012 because of a food fight. The bad behavior of few students made the extra help period unavailable for the whole school.

    Tower Time should be reinstated not only for the extra lunch time but also for teachers to tutor students.

  Will Tower Time return?

  “We never say never around here. We are always looking to find ways to be able to give students the necessary help they need to achieve excellence. In the past Tower Time was very helpful for some students. In the future we may consider a smart lunch as an option to help students with their academics” Principal Stephen Mares said.