Anonymous
Post 10/02/2025 10:27     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Anonymous wrote:lol. I went to WJ 20 years ago and it was the same complaining.


30 years ago for me and yup, same! Lol
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 21:27     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Anonymous wrote:I used to get lunch at Wildwood during the week, sitting at FlowerChild or Piccolo Piatti, but it's become impossible with the high school students. They buy bagels/starbucks/pizza at the cafeteria and sit at the tables outside of these restaurants. They go inside the restaurants, don't order there, but bring outside food in. The lunch is 11-12 it seems, so nearly peak lunch time. They aren't rude, just annoying and messy. WJ has a security guard and maybe a VP stand outside of Chipotle on the other side of Old Georgetown, but not in Wildwood.

Is it up to the restaurants to tell them to leave? WJ to tell them to stop? I think all four grades have one lunch period when any students are allowed to leave campus, but they have to buy their food and bring it back to the school.


https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/45/1260236.page#29580448
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 21:22     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Anonymous wrote:Don’t go to Wildwood at that time. Problem solved. Leave the kids alone!



+1 JFC Karen pick any other thing to be mad about today of all days
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 19:50     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
I see the WJ kids at a wildwood a lot and I have never seen bad behavior. Actually, a lot of them will hold the door open for you, say excuse me, etc. Kids should be allowed to be out in wild and using their social skills at that age.

If an individual or group is causing an incident, the school should know, but I think that’s rare.

I usually get takeout so am not affected by lack of seating.
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 19:14     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:WJ has an open lunch. This is not a new thing. There are over 3000 students in that school; that is on MCPS. There will be fewer once Woodward is available, but still many students, who will be hungry and eating lunch out. No one is standing in the WJ cafeteria line, getting bagels and pizza and walking over to sit at Wildwood. Have you ever been in Bethesda Bagel at lunchtime? Business is booming! I never run errands over there 11-12.

Btw, 12:30, also a normal time to grab lunch out and lounge around, is just fine.


Well a lot of them have slices of pizza and they aren't getting them from Wildwood (they aren't on Flippin Pizza plates either). Most kids get coffee, candy at CVS, donuts at the Giant, or a bagel at Bethesda Bagels. I went to Piccolo last week and about a quarter of the indoor tables and nearly all of the tables outside had students at them. Not ONE student had a purchase from Piccolo with them.

This doesn't happen at the other shopping center where the Giant is. Last year they had a security officer at the Giant make the kids make a line and go inside in limited quantities. Why can't they enforce something on the WW side?


Bethesda Bagels sells pizza by the slice and it is one of the cheapest options for the kids-they do a crazy pizza business at lunch.
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 18:55     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My DS says it’s nearly impossible to get lunch at school. The cafeteria at school is full and there is no sitting room. Let the poor kids eat lunch!


+1. Please don’t block the kids from getting a salad or bagel at lunch. They already have to get up at 6 am to get to that mess of a school so most skip breakfast and they are still growing kids. I agree the restaurants should tell kids they can’t eat there is they didn’t buy there. They are breaking a school rule doing that and I’ve stressed to my kids it’s not okay.


+1 more.
Unlike you and me, these kids have limited options for their lunch break. It seems like you can avoid WW from 11-12 on school days more easily than the kids can. Let them have this.
*Given that it is done safely, which it generally seems to be.
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 18:28     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My DS says it’s nearly impossible to get lunch at school. The cafeteria at school is full and there is no sitting room. Let the poor kids eat lunch!


Do they have one lunch period for the whole school? Why not do 2 or 4 lunch periods?

You want kids to have lunch at 9:30am, or 1:30pm? Do you know what time HS starts? This isn't ES where they have snack breaks.


It would also make class scheduling impossible because so many classes have kids from multiple grade levels plus all the school clubs meet at lunch and all the teachers use lunch for office hours and make up tests. If kids had different lunches, there would be no clubs and no way to do make up tests or get help from a teacher. Every year it is discussed and explained. But it makes it SUPER easy to avoid the WJ kids because they all need to be back for 5th period at 12:05. So this is really only a problem before noon which is a weird time for neighborhood people to be eating lunch. If you are seeing them adter noon it was probably an early dismissal day and then they are private citizens that can go where they please.
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 18:21     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Anonymous wrote:My DS says it’s nearly impossible to get lunch at school. The cafeteria at school is full and there is no sitting room. Let the poor kids eat lunch!


+1. Please don’t block the kids from getting a salad or bagel at lunch. They already have to get up at 6 am to get to that mess of a school so most skip breakfast and they are still growing kids. I agree the restaurants should tell kids they can’t eat there is they didn’t buy there. They are breaking a school rule doing that and I’ve stressed to my kids it’s not okay.
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 17:56     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Don’t go to Wildwood at that time. Problem solved. Leave the kids alone!
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 17:26     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP when did you see this change? I thought WJ has had open lunch forever.


OP here. I noticed them last year but they were (mostly) really good about buying lunch and taking it back to school or eating while they walked back. I think the businesses complained last year and WJ admin started reminding them not to sit down and eat outside the school. This year they are sitting at indoor and outdoor seating almost as an extension of their cafeteria. Maybe it's just the good weather? Or they need a reminder they shouldn't do it? I don't want to go out to eat there because there aren't any seats left.


There are ~3,000 students stuck in an overfilled building with only one break for lunch. Yea for the ones getting outside for some fresh air and vitamin D. I’m sorry if your employment is so rigid that it coincides with your only opportunity to go outside, too, and that you also can only go to places within a couple blocks of WJ. If not, choose another time or place.
Kids spend a lot of money at these restaurants. The shops may feel it after Woodward absorbs some of the students and decreases the WJ population. Occasionally, there are kids who can’t afford to buy lunch who join their friends who can. I’m sorry you had to witness that and that it interfered so much with your lunch.
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 16:21     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Last year the kids were not allowed to stay at Wildwood to eat. They had to bring all food back to campus. Haven’t heard anything about that rule this year.
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 15:55     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP when did you see this change? I thought WJ has had open lunch forever.


OP here. I noticed them last year but they were (mostly) really good about buying lunch and taking it back to school or eating while they walked back. I think the businesses complained last year and WJ admin started reminding them not to sit down and eat outside the school. This year they are sitting at indoor and outdoor seating almost as an extension of their cafeteria. Maybe it's just the good weather? Or they need a reminder they shouldn't do it? I don't want to go out to eat there because there aren't any seats left.


There is nothing in this paragraph that even suggests bad behavior among WJ students

I totally think 17 year olds are capable of dipshit behavior. But not seeing it here
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 15:46     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
I just don’t see the big deal. If you don’t like it, avoid it.
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 15:42     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I used to get lunch at Wildwood during the week, sitting at FlowerChild or Piccolo Piatti, but it's become impossible with the high school students. They buy bagels/starbucks/pizza at the cafeteria and sit at the tables outside of these restaurants. They go inside the restaurants, don't order there, but bring outside food in. The lunch is 11-12 it seems, so nearly peak lunch time. They aren't rude, just annoying and messy. WJ has a security guard and maybe a VP stand outside of Chipotle on the other side of Old Georgetown, but not in Wildwood.

Is it up to the restaurants to tell them to leave? WJ to tell them to stop? I think all four grades have one lunch period when any students are allowed to leave campus, but they have to buy their food and bring it back to the school.


No, they're allowed to eat wherever they like. There is no room inside the school cafeteria for even a fifth of the students. WJ has been overcrowded for YEARS, hence why they built Woodward HS nearby. These are kids who need to breathe fresh air at lunch!





Well, no... if they are not purchasing food there, they should not be sitting there.


That’s for the business to manage.
Anonymous
Post 10/01/2025 15:41     Subject: WJ students taking over Wildwood shopping center at lunch
lol. I went to WJ 20 years ago and it was the same complaining.