Older Alvirne students feel sandwiched by separate freshman lunch

The majority of students at Alvirne High School are divided into three times for lunches. Recently, however, the first of the three lunches has been dubbed “freshman lunch” and reserved exclusively for ninth-graders. For some, freshman lunch can be a good way to promote class unity. “Last year, I really loved having freshman lunch,” sophomore Sarah McAdam said. “It was cool that I had a chance to see my friends even though I didn’t have classes with all of them and definitely made high school less scary.” Her statement mirrored the  general theory behind the implementation of freshman lunch: to ease the transition from the middle school, where lunches are grouped by grade, to the high school. Transitioning from one school to another can be intimidating, and having one period of the day with friends can make it a little bit better, but freshman lunch isn’t a guarantee. If one’s schedule prohibits having the first lunch, then the freshman will be isolated and thrust into a lunch with older students. Junior Adam Charron was less than supportive of freshman lunch. “The whole point of high school is to learn and to meet new people,” he said. “Freshman lunch encourages the newbies to stick to their own little social groups.” By forming cliques early, it makes it harder for freshmen to interact with people from other grades. That isn’t the only complaint, though.