Students with the Youth Leadership Council recommended restoring lunch clubs to schools in District Re-1 at a school-board workshop Tuesday.
Two students with the council William Blair and Karmen Rawls, gave a slide show reflecting data from a survey of 53 people, about 40 percent of whom were students.
The council is a program led by high-school and middle-school students working to bring about positive changes. Blair and Rawls told the board they have been on the council for several years.
Blair said a common concern voiced by the survey respondents was apathy among both students and staff. Blair said bringing back lunch clubs was one thing that would contribute to the schools.
Lunch clubs largely disappeared after 2021, when the school board changed a policy and said lunch time was considered instructional time. That meant clubs that were not instructional could no longer meet on campus.
This came after a furor arose over the existence of a lunch club supportive of LGBTQ students that met weekly at the Montezuma-Cortez Middle School.
The purpose of the LGBTQ club – which was called the Lunch Bunch but was also known as the Rainbow Alliance – was to provide a place where students could get together with others who shared their concerns and receive support. According to the CDC, LGBTQ+ students are far more likely to have been bullied at school (29 percent of the LGBTQ+ students vs. 16 percent for cisgender and heterosexual students); to have seriously considered suicide (41 percent vs. 13 percent); and to have used illicit drugs (15 percent vs. 8 percent).
“I mostly felt unaccepted,” one gay teen, speaking anonymously, told the Four Corners Free Press in 2021. “I didn’t have really any support. Mostly the only support I got was from that group.”
But a number of people complained to the school board that they believed students were being “recruited” or “enticed” at the Lunch Bunch meetings.
Since the policy change, the LGBTQ club, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and all other non-instructional groups have had to meet off-campus if at all.
Blair told the board, “Bringing those back would be a big point of connection” and would allow students to attend clubs without transportation issues arising.
The board seemed willing to consider the idea. Member Mike Lynch said the next appropriate step would be for the Policy Review Committee to take another look at the policy about lunch clubs.
Some other things that would contribute to the schools that were suggested by the Youth Leadership Council included:
· Establishing an identity for the Panther mascot;
· Letting students eat in classrooms;
· Helping the Indigenous Club to succeed;
· Launching an awareness campaign on the effects of racism in society and the school environment.
The student presenters also recommended greater appreciation and recognition of teachers; finding ways to lighten teacher workloads; keeping students accountable for their behavior; students showing they care about being in school; and school-board members volunteering at the schools and at school events.
Rawls and Blair said their project this school year had entailed a three-pronged approach that involved a teacher appreciation campaign; increasing student voice in the high school and school district; and partnering with the school board to create and implement solutions.
