Recently, a new rule has been enforced that does not allow students to eat lunch in the library.Many students have come to their own conclusions as to why they’ve been kicked out.

Sophomore Eian Jones thinks that students aren’t allowed to eat in the library because other students are messy and won’t clean up after themselves.

“It’s sad that the kids that do clean up after themselves get kicked out too. It’s not fair,” he said.

Library lunch students are upset, and junior Steven Brooks went as far as saying the new rule was discriminatory.

“I feel a little disrespected. I mean, let’s be honest here. It was mostly black kids in there anyway.”

Angela Watson, one of the librarians, said it was not her or any of the other librarian’s intent to make students feel excluded.

“It always makes me sad to hear that a student feels discriminated against, but it has nothing to do with who was in here, more so the situation itself,” Watson said.

Some students eat lunch in the library to do homework and work on the computer. Now that the library is closed during that time, lunch students are no longer able to complete assignments.

Oriana Ambush, a sophomore, said she’s upset because of the change. “I used to come in there [the library] to do homework and now I can’t.”

Watson said the reason why the library has been shut down is that of cleanliness.

“The head custodian came to us [the librarians] and let us know that the amount of trash being produced by the library and the history commons was too much for his staff to handle,” she said.

The lack of staff to clear the trash from the library at the end of the day would mean that there would be a larger amount of trash the next day, posing as a health hazard. “They [the custodians] were worried about it becoming a health issue. The excessive amount of trash could attract bugs and rodents and things like that,” Watson said.

Upon informing the students who were asked to share their thoughts on the library lunch ban, most of the responses were negative.

“That’s so dumb,” sophomore Jullian Detwiler said. “Why don’t they just put the trash cans outside the library? I throw my trash out there.”

While consuming whole meals in the library is no longer allowed, Watson says snacks are still welcome. “We never intended that students would eat full meals in the library. We still would like students to bring additional snacks because we want students to be able to eat,” Watson said.