The Carlmont campus is crowded and booming with noise as students scatter and rush to nearby tables. The slower students sulk as they sink and hit the contaminated floor, taking a bite of their lunch.
With 2,152 students at Carlmont High School, the vacancy of seats run low, which is causing a lot of students to sit and eat their lunches on the ground. This can be uncomfortable, and due to the germs on the ground, it makes the students feel gross. If there are available tables, students rush to be the first ones to get there and save the spot for the rest of their group.
Another pressing topic is the unsaid rule of age and table correlation. It’s assumed that the upperclassmen have top pick of the tables, making the lowerclassmen the primary group on the ground.
Principal Ralph Crame recognizes that there has been a growing number of students over the years and works hard to look for funds to fix these issues. Crame mentions that it’s very uncomfortable to sit on the cement stairs and floors, which is why he understands the students’ discomfort.
“Over four years [the seating] has gotten worse because it’s the same amount of spots, but more and more people are attending. It is just gross because there is food, dirt, and hair everywhere on the floor,” said Nick Gonzalez, a senior.
Lack of seating has been an issue throughout the past at Carlmont. In the years 1991-1995, the school was very different from the Carlmont students to attend today. Even though it was a long time ago, with around 1400 students, the struggle still occurred.
“There was very limited seating. We usually sat on the ground. It wasn’t very clean, and it felt gross to eat while sitting on the dirty ground. The quad and C hall were especially crowded,” said Lagille Rodriguez, a Carlmont alumna.
As a new student to the school, freshman Chelsea Plunkett is one of the many students that sit on the ground. Plunkett’s group sits on the grass near the quad, which, as Plunkett stated, most of the time makes them quite dirty.
”Sometimes it’s frustrating because we’re all just a pile of humans with a pile of backpacks and it’s disorganized and messy,” Plunkett said.
Thankfully, Carlmont has found solutions to fix these problems. Crame mentions that he has noticed this problem throughout the years, so there have been tables added to the quad area specifically. With the growing number of students, it is hard to have a spot for everyone.
“I will take input. Wherever people want benches, I can see what we can do to increase the seating because I don’t find it comfortable sitting on the floor,” Crame said.
