When I first saw Sage Creek High School, three things stood out to me. The amazing campus, the sense of community, and most of all, the vending machines. Unfortunately, I was quickly saddened by the sudden realization of an utterly world-ending fact: the vending machines do not function during school hours.

As for why these glorious machines of beauty do not work during school, I wasn’t exactly sure. My first guess was that it could be for boring legal reasons, and my second guess was that maybe the administrators just didn’t think candy and soda was a healthy alternative to apples and milk. Since I was unsure, I asked Mr. Morales who proclaimed that “it is Ed-Code law that the vending machines need to be turned off 30 minutes before school starts.” I wasn‘t surprised by his answer, but it still disappointed me.

However, my sadness was quickly uplifted when Morales said that “we are looking to get additional vending machines that are a part of our district nutrition program, so there could potentially be some vending machines open during our lunch and break period.” However,  he was “unsure of the exact date, whether they would come this school year, or the next.”Sadly, if these “nutritional” vending machines are anything like the ones at my middle school, all that will be found in them are granola bars and health food- yummy! Even with this new information, my opinion has not changed. Forcing the schools to disable the GOOD vending machines during school hours is perhaps best explained by the word “stupid.”

As for why, I can list many reasons:

First off, students should be allowed to make their own decisions as to whether to eat healthy or whether to eat junk food 24/7. I would prefer the latter. Secondly, it could be a very good source of income for the school. After school hours the vending machines are already as popular as Disneyland. This extra income could be used for multiple programs ranging from journalism, to drama, to ASB (as if they don’t already have enough money from charging $50 dollars a ticket for the fall formal).

In conclusion, keeping the happy boxes of sugar closed during school hours is D-U-M-B. They should be open for all to buy from, because who doesn’t like purchasing candy and soda during passing periods?