One of the debated issues at West High is the rule against any food delivery service. Many students believe this rule is unfair, since it is the student’s money being spent. However, the staff views this rule as a safety precaution. The idea is to stop random individuals from walking onto campus to give food to minors. In the TUSD district handbook, the rule on food delivery clearly says, “To ensure the safety of students and staff and minimize interruption of our instructional programs, food deliveries from a delivery service will be denied by the office and security personnel.” This came from the board that oversees the district policies.  

There are many safety risks involved with allowing unauthorized personnel on campus. According to our principal, Ms. Lee, when asked why this is a rule, she responded, “I would think because of safety issues, like we don’t know these people coming on campus. We don’t know if it’s legit. We don’t know if they’re delivering what they say they are, so it’s just a security issue.” Although, for the most part the risk seems too minimal to even consider, campus security must follow district rules. This rule could potentially be changed through attending a district board meeting and presenting why the rule should be changed for the students. 

When asking music teacher Nick Jamero, who also delivers for door dash after hours, he said “It’s something that, yeah, I would be interested if it were able to be fixed, but as of right now specifically for the whole security thing, and the fact that we now only have one entrance to go out during campus hours, I am probably against it.” Delivery is an issue that has a lot of potential problems, so from a staff point of view, there would need to be more strict rules involved with the delivery of food if the rule were to change. Another problem with receiving food from outside sources is the distraction in the classroom that delivery apps elicit. 

 “What I’ve seen, is a lot of students are distracted during third period because they are ordering their door dash, and the teachers get after them about that and then the students get mad because they are like ‘this is my lunch’ kind of thing”. Jamero is pointing out distractions that delivery apps elicit.  

Most students would prefer to have no rule banning delivery, but the safety concerns are too high to change. If a better system was created to help rule out the safety issue, then this idea could be proposed at a district meeting. There are still ways to get food off-campus. Juniors and seniors who receive an off-campus pass are welcome to leave during lunch period. Parents are also allowed to deliver food to the office for students, then pick up from the office for those who are freshman and sophomores. Although this can make lunch less exciting, free breakfast and lunch are available to every student every day.