In recent years, WHS has been consistently enforcing the school rule of prohibiting the delivery of food to school by companies such as DoorDash or UberEats. During school hours, students are not permitted to have food delivered to school.
When it comes to the rationale behind this rule, the school committee determined that there are two main reasons.
“Student and school safety is always a top priority, as is time for learning,” principal Paul Peri said. “Outside deliveries created both school safety concerns as well as school and classroom distractions.”
Before this school year, despite the practice being enforced, some students were still ordering food, which quickly became a problem because it brought strangers onto school property, a practice school administrators feel is not advisable and that therefore is only allowed when school is not in session.
“Students who stay after school are permitted to order food if they need to. Students are asked to meet the order outside of the building,” Peri said.
WHS will continue to enforce this rule for the rest of the school year and beyond, but despite the rule, some students still question its effectiveness.
“I think that it is a silly policy because I think it encourages kids to leave campus to pick up food, which is the opposite of what the school encourages,” junior Emma Darling said. “I would imagine that many seniors are having to rush to get back to school if they are unable to order food and have to leave campus.”
While some students may choose to leave campus, the administration believes there are reasons this may not be a major problem.
“Ninth, tenth and eleventh graders are not permitted to leave campus during the school day, [and] lunch is now free in the state of Massachusetts,” Peri said, pointing out that anyone can now eat in the cafeteria.
Other students have different reasons behind their questioning of the rules.
“I think that if you are in a free period or a study hall, you should be allowed to order food. Sometimes the school lunch isn’t filling enough, especially during a long school day with sports afterwards,” junior Sam Tremblay said. “I don’t think it affects how we perform in school, so I don’t see why we can’t get any food.”
The practice is not just in place at WHS as other schools in Massachusetts are also making the same changes.
“I spoke with 30-40 local principals last year, inquiring if their schools were experiencing the same situation,” Peri said. “Almost all of the schools stated that their students were not [allowed to] order from outside food delivery companies during the school day.”
As for consequences, for students who are caught ordering food the first time, their food will be taken to the office until after school when the student may get their order back as well as receive a warning. If the student continues to order food, the student may earn a detention.
Some students believe that there should be certain exceptions to the practice.
“At a minimum, students who have a free block and in any situation where the student was unable to get lunch as they might have been meeting with a teacher, should be able to order food,” senior Katie Gaw said. “As long as they have it delivered outside, it should not cause any issues with safety or distractions.”
Other students believe that the practice about ordering food to school should revolve around grade level.
“I understand why freshmen cannot order food because it can get out of hand, but upperclassmen should be able to because most of the time they are more mature,” Darling said. “As long as it does not interfere with their school work, juniors and seniors should be able to handle it.”
