The new lunch schedule shortened lunch periods by five minutes this school year, and students have a lot to say about it.

Many underclassmen have said that they do not have enough time to enjoy their lunch after waiting in line in the cafeteria. Seniors, who are allowed to go off campus for lunch, also have complained about the shortened lunch periods, saying it has caused them several problems.

Akins junior Deacon Gonzalez created an online petition to press the issue of longer lunch breaks. The petition started on August 31, intending to reach 500 signatures. Now the petition has reached its goal and now aims for 1,000 signatures.

“I think we should have longer lunches due to the fact [that] we have a small time that doesn’t really give us time to eat, especially the lines in lunch once people get their food all they have is 5 minutes or less,” a student wrote on the petition.

Many participants from the petition said they needed more time to get lunch, de-stress or socialize, and get to class on time.

“There’s a lot of stress at this school. We all need a break. We can’t do that if we’re just rushing to get the food and scarfing it down,” Deacon said.

The  Eagle’s Eye surveyed students about the issue and about 85% of students responded that they were opposed to the reduced lunch time. Many expressed their discontent with a majority stating that they don’t have enough time to eat, wait in line, and get to class on time.

“No time to eat school lunch because of the amount of students that are in one lunch and not enough time, space or materials for all these students so taking that 5 minutes takes time off of that. Did we even think about the students and teachers? or lunch ladies for their lunch and time to prepare[?],” a responder to the survey said.

As for students who may be off campus during lunch, many seniors stated that they don’t have enough time to return to campus and eat lunch. ACC students said they have a similar struggle.

“It doesn’t allow me a lot of time to eat and so I often can’t eat until 1:30-1:40,” wrote a student on the survey. “And even when I do eat breakfast, it’s still so early and such a small amount of food that I end up starving by the end of class.”

“I have to speed out of the parking lot and it’s not safe to speed,” wrote a senior who responded to the survey. Also by the time I come back to school ready to eat in my car, it’s time to go back to class and that’s INCLUDING ordering ahead.”

A senior from the survey also explained their frustrations with lunch lines and going off-campus. While going off-campus, it

 takes them about 10 minutes to reach the Southpark Meadows retail area, and by the time they arrive at school, they have only a few minutes to eat.

Associate Principal Manuel Garcia said lunchtime is still 40 minutes if students include the passing period. Excluding the passing periods, lunch is 35 minutes. Including the passing period after lunch is over that would total 40 minutes. However, compared to last year’s bell schedule, 2nd and 6th Period classes are five minutes longer than they were last year and all of the other class periods, which are an hour and 30 minutes long.

In comparison, nearby Bowie High School — which has a similarly-sized student population — has a 40-minute lunch period without counting the passing periods. They also have six-minute passing periods, which is a change to the bell schedule that Akins students would like to see implemented.

Garcia said the petition would be reviewed and could be taken into consideration by the Campus Leadership Team.

“We’ll look at the pros and cons. And from there, we’ll decide for the following school year,” he said.

Garcia also said that he has observed the line to receive tardy passes after lunch decreasing this year with typically 10 or fewer students getting tardy passes.

He also added that the new bell schedule provides more structured learning time for students, which is five more minutes students could use to get help from teachers.

Dean Knowlton contributed to this story.