Breaking Habits: Tardiness Due to Vending Machines

Cora Garrette - Dardzinski
Staff Writer
  An issue has emerged with the usage of vending machines at Bonneville High School. Administration has noticed that students have started to travel to the vending machines during passing periods. According to the admin, it is becoming more frequent and  is affecting how quickly the students can make it to class. 
  On Thursday, October 16th, within the group of students interviewed, a majority of them reported that the vending machines help them focus in class since it is their food and caffeine source during school hours. The students love to use the vending machines in the morning the majority of the time; however, some of them cannot access the vending machines before class, so they resort to going during passing periods. Some students consider passing periods to be the best time to go to the vending machines, while other students find the resulting lines irritating as well as a reason they are late to class. 
  During the interviews, students were asked how vending machines are necessary in school. Most of them explained that they believe the vending machines help motivate them by providing snacks and drinks for energy. A majority of the interviewed group feels as though without the snacks and drinks, some of them would not feel ready enough to learn in the morning due to being tired and a lack of breakfast. Some of the students even resort to the vending machines for lunch and do not believe they could get themselves through the other half of their classes without the calories and/or caffeine. 
  The majority of the students that were interviewed collectively believed that the two vending machines near the Hope Squad room are used most often. In addition, they all believe that if there was a way to stop students from going to the vending machines during passing periods, it would be impactful. Freshmen Taylor Luke and Maya Johnson suggest that “to keep students away from the vending machines during passing periods, [they] could put up signs letting them know to go during lunch and before and after school.” The pair also suggested making a morning announcement to make the students of Bonneville aware of this change that would not only be beneficial to the students, but to the staff as well.
​  If the vending machines were used less or not at all during passing periods, it would keep students from being late to class and would keep the teachers and staff from having to monitor them. Along with this claim, students could start going during lunch or before and after school. They would still get the caffeine and calories needed during school hours to keep them motivated without causing a distraction in class, and it would easily resolve the issue at hand.