A decision to prohibit students from sending out for lunch-time pizza has sent pupils “packing” at William Henry Harrison High School in Harrison, Ohio.
When school administrators rejected their plans to have pizza delivered to the campus for lunch, the students retaliated on March 26 by boycotting the school’s cafeteria.
Their complaint--which some might argue could be applied equally to pizza that has spent some time on a delivery truck--is that the cafeteria food is cold, greasy, and lacks variety.
The strike, described as “good-spirited,” was in its second week last week, according to Carroll Roberts, the school’s principal.
The number of students “packing"--bringing their lunches to school in traditional brown paper sacks--has increased by more than 100.
The brown-bagging activity has meant losses of up to “a couple hundred dollars each day” for the cafeteria, Mr. Roberts said.
Administrators at the suburban Cincinnati school say the students’ recent appetite for pizza was whetted by a scene from the movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” The scene shows pizza being delivered to a high-school classroom.
“We’re going to keep this up as long as it takes and as long as we can keep everyone excited about it,” said Risa Baird, the student council president.
A food committee, organized by administrators and members of the student council, is investigating complaints about the cafeteria’s food.
The Southwest Board of Education, which governs the district, has upheld the administration’s decision to ban campus pizza deliveries on the grounds that the cafeteria should not be required to compete with a commercial business.
