At the beginning of September, on the popular teenage targeted app of Tik Tok, the “Devious/Diabolical Lick” trend was born. In this trend, students steal from other students, the school or vandalize the school. 

Unfortunately, this trend has gained popularity across the nation and it is present at Lambert High school. Students are not stealing for necessity, but instead, fun.

In Lambert’s bathrooms, there are missing soap dispensers, faucets and door locks. Students are also missing personal items. Some are making a huge mess which our caring custodians have to clean up. 

Many point to the freshmen and sophomores for this juvenile behavior, but it is rooted back to the general immature students all throughout Lambert.

Naturally, this criminal activity has caused paranoia within Lambert students and staff who are mostly foreign to such a happening.

 To combat this trend and punish students for their immature behavior, Lambert made the tough decision to take away Lunch and Learn: a period in which students have the chance to study in the library, receive extra help from their teachers or eat lunch outside of class. 

In my opinion, this punishment for all students is unfair and quite upsetting.

Without Lunch and Learn students cannot get extra help if they are struggling to understand a concept in class. Additionally, some people are now lonely because they have no friends in their lunch period to socialize with.

“Lunch and Learn is our only time to take a moment and relax…to escape from the stress of our classes,” Roshni Chimilli, a sophomore candidly expressed. “Now people are facing the consequences of actions they did not even commit.” 

I completely understood her sentiment.

To get a different point of view, I sat down with the Forensics and Biology teacher, Mrs. Spalding. Throughout our conversation, she expressed sympathy for those who did not benefit from this new implementation but also understood the positive effects of the punishment.

“I also think it was a really smart and creative punishment,” Mrs. Spalding earnestly explained. 

“I feel like it put pressure on the kids who were making bad decisions to stop and reconsider how their actions were affecting everybody else,” Spalding concluded.

 From my understanding, no one wants this punishment. However, countering unfairness with unfairness seems to be the most logical option; the goal to stop this trend is being achieved.

Sadly though, more rules are coming into existence.

Hallway passes and checkout sheets are being made mandatory. Additionally, some teachers are enforcing the “one boy, one girl” policy. Not only is this an outdated concept, it also makes high schoolers who feel like young adults feel like restricted children.

I have mixed feelings about our punishment because I understand both sides. On one hand, our school is positively more disciplined, but this takes away some of our school freedoms.

I think that Lambert will be different for a while with hall passes being mandatory, hall monitors and teachers being suspicious of students.

However, with teachers wanting to have free time during lunch and students complaining about lunch, I believe the Lambert administration was forced to rethink their revocation of Lunch and Learn.

As of recently, Lambert has announced that we can get Lunch and Learn back if students make a viral video where Longhorns help Longhorns. The majority of students are already willing to post for this almost humorous and ironic #HornsHelp initiative.

So far, this plan has definitely added life back into Lambert. I am so grateful to be in a school that wants a good reputation and can give students a second chance.