In response to your Opinion article in the JCPatriot  regarding the new Library policy, let me set the record straight for you.

The Library Classroom is not the senior room, nor was eating in there a “tradition”.  It is a classroom used for teaching and for meetings for the senior project.  As a result of this seniors were allowed to meet there during off mods to eat lunch quietly and study. This privilege was abused from the beginning.   It was never intended to be a room where “seniors could spend their time in there however they pleased”.

The Library Media Center has never allowed food to be eaten in here until the past two and a half years.  Again, not a tradition.   The policy was changed when it was decided that allowing students to eat during their only mods off while studying would hopefully prevent students from sneaking in food , leaving their trash and mess behind and possibly helping them to become more responsible.  That didn’t work either, and as a result we incurred more trash and mess left behind along with the development of a new “entitlement attitude” by the students.  There was more eating than studying and consequently the Library became a mini cafeteria.

So far, the new policy has NOT “forced any student to leave the Library at the end of each mod”, has NOT “turned away any student wishing to come in and study during several mods”, has NOT “made any student leave during the middle of a study session to return four minutes later to resume studying”, has NOT “been imprudent by not letting students print between classes or denied the right to print homework without a pass”.

What the new policy has done, however, is allowed students who really need free mods to study and finish homework, in a space that is quiet and less crowded and more conducive to their needs.  It has restored the Library Media Center to the original and proper environment for which it was established.

So, be prepared to be shocked because it will not change.

Library Media Specialist Phyllis Grymes