TT trying to eliminate open lunch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brenda Wolff is so out of touch it’s not even funny. She said in the meeting that she thinks parents think their kids are in school and are surprised to learn they may be out for open lunch. Brenda, it’s not 1985. The kids all have phones and the parents all have gps trackers for them (findmy, Life360, etc). They text us all day long asking if we will pay for their chipotle, and the school robocalls and emails us if they are absent from a class. She’s obviously not interacted with any actual students or parents in decades.

I hope the next BOE member from Brenda's district is better...hard to be worse than her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brenda is not letting up. She's moving the Open Lunch policy discussion to the full board, against Julie's objections.

The SMOB is the one to second, which is odd, since I imagine there's a meaningful portion of the student body that wants to keep the Open Lunch policy.

Why didn't they have Natalie Zimmerman second?

This year’s SMOB has been terrible.

You're posting about a child, weirdo

And that child also ran for public office, so that student public official is fair game for some public criticism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brenda Wolff is so out of touch it’s not even funny. She said in the meeting that she thinks parents think their kids are in school and are surprised to learn they may be out for open lunch. Brenda, it’s not 1985. The kids all have phones and the parents all have gps trackers for them (findmy, Life360, etc). They text us all day long asking if we will pay for their chipotle, and the school robocalls and emails us if they are absent from a class. She’s obviously not interacted with any actual students or parents in decades.

I hope the next BOE member from Brenda's district is better...hard to be worse than her.

Don't get your hopes. I've seen her in action and she's amateurish and a mess. She's pretty much a Black version of Natalie Zimmerman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is great for kids to be able to access teachers for meetings etc. And not eat lunch at 7:45 AM. And it does look like this unfortunately is happening. Vote is in a few weeks. Board members and TT is all on board unless I am missing something? With little time for comment.

The vote isn’t in a few weeks - it’s on May 21, a week from today! Why are they rushing this? Why the short comment period?

PLEASE READ THIS THREAD THOROUGHLY AND WATCH THE BOE's POLICY COMMITTEE MEETING.

Both of your questions are addressed in there.

You keep saying that, but I have read it and there’s really no good explanation. You screaming about it doesn’t change that.

Your answer indicates you did not read or watch the policy meeting, or that you lack comprehension skills.

1) In the policy meeting, Julie Yang explicitly asked why this policy was being brought to the policy committee, even though it was not previously on their work plan. MCPS Legal Counsel Robyn Seabrook responded that Dr. Taylor was considering changes with regard to open lunch policy that could impact the upcoming school year, and he did not want to get ahead of the board. So that's your answer to why're they're rushing this.

2) Re: Why the short comment period. Because Dr. Taylor wants to impact the upcoming school year, and he believes it's an urgent thing to address because of the inconsistency in implementation and the safety concerns.

Again, if you watched and read, you would know this. That you don't, means you didn't read or watch or that you lack comprehension skills.

I did read (this thread and the transcript). These answers don’t explain why this became an emergency NOW. Why hasn’t he brought this to the board sooner? What happened that made it so imperative that this policy be rescinded for the upcoming school year? That hasn’t been answered anywhere, including in your response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I often see WJ kids crossing back and forth old georgetown rd, while looking at phones, during lunchtime.

Super. safe.

That's the children's fault, not the school's. If a parent fails to educate their child to focus while crossing the road, it's on them and the child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to school in the 90s here in MoCo. We did not have open lunch. I also never once in my four years of Hs eat lunch in the cafeteria. It was always outside on school grounds, in a classroom or a hallway. The only time I ate lunch in a cafeteria was ES and MS. Like why the F is everyone freaking out over this? Kids were never allowed to leave school grounds when I was in HS.

B-CC has had open lunch for several decades. My co-worker graduated from B-CC in the 1980s and he had open lunch. I graduated from Whitman in the early 1990s and seniors had open lunch. The current policy has been in place for something like 50 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brenda Wolff is so out of touch it’s not even funny. She said in the meeting that she thinks parents think their kids are in school and are surprised to learn they may be out for open lunch. Brenda, it’s not 1985. The kids all have phones and the parents all have gps trackers for them (findmy, Life360, etc). They text us all day long asking if we will pay for their chipotle, and the school robocalls and emails us if they are absent from a class. She’s obviously not interacted with any actual students or parents in decades.

I hope the next BOE member from Brenda's district is better...hard to be worse than her.

Don't get your hopes. I've seen her in action and she's amateurish and a mess. She's pretty much a Black version of Natalie Zimmerman.

We don't have decent BOE candidates, except for one, and we're light on decent county council candidates as well.

[Anonymous]

(I use "you" to refer to everyone in this thread against open lunch) Hi, I'm a freshman at BCC. I leave the school every day for open lunch, and I'd like to address some of your criticisms of open lunch. First, I'd like to start with the issue of being late due to the short lunch period. BCC's lunch period is 55 minutes, and with the passing period added, it's an hour. Second, the issue of places to eat within 5-10 minutes of the campus. You may not live in or be well acquainted with downtown Bethesda. Still, within a 5-10-minute walk of the campus, there are multiple restaurants/places to eat: Andy's, Jean's deli, Sprout, Lidl (for pre-prepared foods), &Pizza, Crescent convenience store (close to the metro), Dunkin' Donuts, Simona cafe, Subway, Starbucks, 7-11, Sister's Sandwiches. The list goes on, but the common denominator among all these places is that they all cost under $15. I'm not saying your kid has to get food out every day, but for a weekly meal, these are all easy to get to. Third, regarding students entering class late, I'll admit that I'm guilty of entering the school near the end of the lunch period, but when I do, I see at most 20 kids walking in at 12:00 pm. If you mean to say that students are entering the class itself late, that's an issue with skipping class, not open lunch.
If you take into account BCC's population of 2500 students, having them all in the school will lead to crowded classrooms and hallways, lower sun exposure, and space for clubs. There are ~110 classrooms in the school, meaning that every classroom would have at least 22 students in it, which lowers space for clubs and direct student assistance. If 20 teachers are holding test retakes and another 10 are in their planning period, as well as 10 who are directly assisting students, the number of students in a classroom on average is 35. That spills into the hallways, causing crowding and boredom. Sun exposure is vital to learning because it boosts mood and increases focus. When you take a walk, eat, and talk with your friends, it increases your mood and therefore makes it easier for you to learn. If I stay inside the building all day, I tend to stop focusing on learning after lunch; this is easily remedied by a quick walk outside of the school. My third point is that without open lunch, clubs wouldn't be able to find somewhere to meet. If 22.5 students fill a classroom, on average, there is no world where a medium to large-sized club will find space; most clubs have 10 members, and student unions such as LSU, ASU, and JSU will often have 20+ students; the students will have nowhere to meet, which lowers the student community, which would eventually lead to students forming clicks and rates of bullying increasing because students wouldn't have any mixing based on interest.

Before you answer any of my points on overcrowding, please look inside the school, or at least look at a map of it.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask!

Also if you haven't visited BCC or the area around it in depth in a while, please consider it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The safety concern is such a joke. My kids go to WJ.
No one checks their ID going into the school. If you hold a piece of paper shaped like an ID or a credit card up, they let you in.
You can easily jump over the fence to get in/out of campus.
If they cared about safety, there are tons of things they could do. The kids that want to fight are going to do that on campus or just leave campus and do it—they don’t care if it’s open lunch or closed lunch.

And I am very doubtful that the majority of businesses oppose getting these kids business. If they don’t want it, they could just decline to admit HS students. Has anyone polled the businesses at G Square, Wildwood and RTC, for instance? Their revenue will really drop.

Uh....I'm not sure that would be legally defensible.

Sure it would. A private business can decline to serve anyone so long as it doesn’t violate anti discrimination laws. Being a teenager is not a protected class. Giant already limits the number of HS kids in there at any given time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are going to ban it, what will they offer to Walter Johnson kids? Just stay hungry??

Breaking news: local WJ parent forgets that FARMS students exist

I’m not that poster and am not sure what point they are making—but at the overcrowded middle school there often was not enough time to serve all kids in line for food and kids had to leave lunch without having eaten. WJ is at something like 150% of capacity—the highest over capacity of any school in the state I think. They cannot serve all those kids. These Board members are divorced from reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(I use "you" to refer to everyone in this thread against open lunch) Hi, I'm a freshman at BCC. I leave the school every day for open lunch, and I'd like to address some of your criticisms of open lunch. First, I'd like to start with the issue of being late due to the short lunch period. BCC's lunch period is 55 minutes, and with the passing period added, it's an hour. Second, the issue of places to eat within 5-10 minutes of the campus. You may not live in or be well acquainted with downtown Bethesda. Still, within a 5-10-minute walk of the campus, there are multiple restaurants/places to eat: Andy's, Jean's deli, Sprout, Lidl (for pre-prepared foods), &Pizza, Crescent convenience store (close to the metro), Dunkin' Donuts, Simona cafe, Subway, Starbucks, 7-11, Sister's Sandwiches. The list goes on, but the common denominator among all these places is that they all cost under $15. I'm not saying your kid has to get food out every day, but for a weekly meal, these are all easy to get to. Third, regarding students entering class late, I'll admit that I'm guilty of entering the school near the end of the lunch period, but when I do, I see at most 20 kids walking in at 12:00 pm. If you mean to say that students are entering the class itself late, that's an issue with skipping class, not open lunch.
If you take into account BCC's population of 2500 students, having them all in the school will lead to crowded classrooms and hallways, lower sun exposure, and space for clubs. There are ~110 classrooms in the school, meaning that every classroom would have at least 22 students in it, which lowers space for clubs and direct student assistance. If 20 teachers are holding test retakes and another 10 are in their planning period, as well as 10 who are directly assisting students, the number of students in a classroom on average is 35. That spills into the hallways, causing crowding and boredom. Sun exposure is vital to learning because it boosts mood and increases focus. When you take a walk, eat, and talk with your friends, it increases your mood and therefore makes it easier for you to learn. If I stay inside the building all day, I tend to stop focusing on learning after lunch; this is easily remedied by a quick walk outside of the school. My third point is that without open lunch, clubs wouldn't be able to find somewhere to meet. If 22.5 students fill a classroom, on average, there is no world where a medium to large-sized club will find space; most clubs have 10 members, and student unions such as LSU, ASU, and JSU will often have 20+ students; the students will have nowhere to meet, which lowers the student community, which would eventually lead to students forming clicks and rates of bullying increasing because students wouldn't have any mixing based on interest.

Before you answer any of my points on overcrowding, please look inside the school, or at least look at a map of it.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask!

Also if you haven't visited BCC or the area around it in depth in a while, please consider it!

Excellent post. Thanks for sharing the student perspective. I hope you share this with MCPS leadership and condider testifying next week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are going to ban it, what will they offer to Walter Johnson kids? Just stay hungry??

Breaking news: local WJ parent forgets that FARMS students exist

I’m not that poster and am not sure what point they are making—but at the overcrowded middle school there often was not enough time to serve all kids in line for food and kids had to leave lunch without having eaten. WJ is at something like 150% of capacity—the highest over capacity of any school in the state I think. They cannot serve all those kids. These Board members are divorced from reality.

+1 our middle school struggled to get all students served and ran out of food options daily and it was a fraction of the students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is great for kids to be able to access teachers for meetings etc. And not eat lunch at 7:45 AM. And it does look like this unfortunately is happening. Vote is in a few weeks. Board members and TT is all on board unless I am missing something? With little time for comment.

The vote isn’t in a few weeks - it’s on May 21, a week from today! Why are they rushing this? Why the short comment period?

PLEASE READ THIS THREAD THOROUGHLY AND WATCH THE BOE's POLICY COMMITTEE MEETING.

Both of your questions are addressed in there.

You keep saying that, but I have read it and there’s really no good explanation. You screaming about it doesn’t change that.

Your answer indicates you did not read or watch the policy meeting, or that you lack comprehension skills.

1) In the policy meeting, Julie Yang explicitly asked why this policy was being brought to the policy committee, even though it was not previously on their work plan. MCPS Legal Counsel Robyn Seabrook responded that Dr. Taylor was considering changes with regard to open lunch policy that could impact the upcoming school year, and he did not want to get ahead of the board. So that's your answer to why're they're rushing this.

2) Re: Why the short comment period. Because Dr. Taylor wants to impact the upcoming school year, and he believes it's an urgent thing to address because of the inconsistency in implementation and the safety concerns.

Again, if you watched and read, you would know this. That you don't, means you didn't read or watch or that you lack comprehension skills.

I did read (this thread and the transcript). These answers don’t explain why this became an emergency NOW. Why hasn’t he brought this to the board sooner? What happened that made it so imperative that this policy be rescinded for the upcoming school year? That hasn’t been answered anywhere, including in your response.

Yes, it has been answered. You refuse to listen. Blake happened. Because of the ambiguity around Open/Closed Lunch, kids were allowed to eat lunch in the parking lot. The immediate consequence and first official communication coming out of Blake after the fight and shooting in the parking lot was a tightening up of this semi-open lunch policy:

SOURCE: https://mocoshow.com/2026/04/29/blake-high-school-details-gun-incident-announces-new-safety-measures/

In response, the school is implementing several immediate safety changes beginning April 30. Students will no longer be permitted to eat lunch outside for the remainder of the school year, and outside food deliveries such as DoorDash and Uber Eats will be prohibited. The school will also increase staff supervision throughout the building as part of an enhanced safety effort.

How many more times do we have to explain it to you before you get it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(I use "you" to refer to everyone in this thread against open lunch) Hi, I'm a freshman at BCC. I leave the school every day for open lunch, and I'd like to address some of your criticisms of open lunch. First, I'd like to start with the issue of being late due to the short lunch period. BCC's lunch period is 55 minutes, and with the passing period added, it's an hour. Second, the issue of places to eat within 5-10 minutes of the campus. You may not live in or be well acquainted with downtown Bethesda. Still, within a 5-10-minute walk of the campus, there are multiple restaurants/places to eat: Andy's, Jean's deli, Sprout, Lidl (for pre-prepared foods), &Pizza, Crescent convenience store (close to the metro), Dunkin' Donuts, Simona cafe, Subway, Starbucks, 7-11, Sister's Sandwiches. The list goes on, but the common denominator among all these places is that they all cost under $15. I'm not saying your kid has to get food out every day, but for a weekly meal, these are all easy to get to. Third, regarding students entering class late, I'll admit that I'm guilty of entering the school near the end of the lunch period, but when I do, I see at most 20 kids walking in at 12:00 pm. If you mean to say that students are entering the class itself late, that's an issue with skipping class, not open lunch.
If you take into account BCC's population of 2500 students, having them all in the school will lead to crowded classrooms and hallways, lower sun exposure, and space for clubs. There are ~110 classrooms in the school, meaning that every classroom would have at least 22 students in it, which lowers space for clubs and direct student assistance. If 20 teachers are holding test retakes and another 10 are in their planning period, as well as 10 who are directly assisting students, the number of students in a classroom on average is 35. That spills into the hallways, causing crowding and boredom. Sun exposure is vital to learning because it boosts mood and increases focus. When you take a walk, eat, and talk with your friends, it increases your mood and therefore makes it easier for you to learn. If I stay inside the building all day, I tend to stop focusing on learning after lunch; this is easily remedied by a quick walk outside of the school. My third point is that without open lunch, clubs wouldn't be able to find somewhere to meet. If 22.5 students fill a classroom, on average, there is no world where a medium to large-sized club will find space; most clubs have 10 members, and student unions such as LSU, ASU, and JSU will often have 20+ students; the students will have nowhere to meet, which lowers the student community, which would eventually lead to students forming clicks and rates of bullying increasing because students wouldn't have any mixing based on interest.

Before you answer any of my points on overcrowding, please look inside the school, or at least look at a map of it.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask!

Also if you haven't visited BCC or the area around it in depth in a while, please consider it!

Why would a high school freshman be here posting on a parents' forum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The safety concern is such a joke. My kids go to WJ.
No one checks their ID going into the school. If you hold a piece of paper shaped like an ID or a credit card up, they let you in.
You can easily jump over the fence to get in/out of campus.
If they cared about safety, there are tons of things they could do. The kids that want to fight are going to do that on campus or just leave campus and do it—they don’t care if it’s open lunch or closed lunch.

And I am very doubtful that the majority of businesses oppose getting these kids business. If they don’t want it, they could just decline to admit HS students. Has anyone polled the businesses at G Square, Wildwood and RTC, for instance? Their revenue will really drop.

Uh....I'm not sure that would be legally defensible.

Sure it would. A private business can decline to serve anyone so long as it doesn’t violate anti discrimination laws. Being a teenager is not a protected class. Giant already limits the number of HS kids in there at any given time.

Limiting the number of kids allowed in at one time is different from outright banning them.