Rules are there for safety, but not everybody follows them
By Noah Mitchell
OUSD has a strict policy about selling snacks on campus for many reasons, yet anytime I’m seen with a duffel bag they are 100% guaranteed to ask,“You sellin’?”
Usually students tend to sell hot chips, juices, even donuts for a dollar or two daily and rake in a ton of cash by the end of the school week. Buying tons of low-cost snacks at places like Walmart and Costco and selling them for a dollar provides a stable business to continue to slowly gain revenue after using some of that money to buy more inventory.
So, should this be allowed?
Personally, I buy snacks all the time from anyone who just so happens to walk by advertising, whether it’s from students or leadership. I even remember a teacher in my previous years who used to sell to students on the daily.
Some teachers and staff are pretty lax about it and will turn a blind eye or simply tell you to put it away.
“This teaches students to be entrepreneurs and manage their own businesses because a lot of the skills it takes to do it here will apply later in their careers. Right now we’re selling World’s Finest Chocolate as a fundraiser for next year’s prom. Ironically, we are not allowed to sell them on campus,” Junior Cymone Winters commented.
A junior and snackseller who wished to remain anonymous, believes enforcement of the ban is hypocritical.
“I’ve been busted before and understand OUSDs ‘healthy eating initiative’ where the school is labeled responsible for all of the unhealthy things students consume, but most stuff we sell you see in the student store and the snack bar anyway.”
Another student chimed in, adding, “I was selling down by PE and got caught by the PE teacher at the time. He pulled me aside and explained to me why he was taking all my snacks; I swear the staff ate them all or sold them because what else would they do with them.”
It seems like there’s only two groups of people who are ‘permitted’ to sell anything on campus; anyone approved by Leadership and the Student Store. There are exceptions to this rule, however; every year the Seniors are allowed to fundraise for their prom by selling food.
A common go-to concern of many admin is that ‘all the food that is circulating is just junk,’ and they are not necessarily wrong.
Students sell anything from Hot Chips and Cup of Noodles to Honey Buns and Ice Cream. The reality of the situation is, that’s what sells.
The only reason I see no problem with it is because most of the stuff sold on campus is junk food anyway. Not even good junk, I mean have you seen the Lay’s air they sell in bags in the snack bar?
Alumni twins Mikayla and Miarra Franklin, who are freshman at Western Oregon University. had this to say about their experiences back in the day:
“We sold brownies, cupcakes, candy, among other stuff to help fundraise for cross-country, prom, and grad night. Some of the admin knew that my twin and I were selling to the SSOs and them in the office, but not all of them were cool with it. I feel like it’s fair for seniors to sell food because their activities are really expensive. It is not fair that only seniors can get approval to sell food on campus because other students need cash in order to pay for bills, food, or other home expenses. You never know what kids are going through.”
Another obvious problem is the school ‘losing money’ to students who sell more diverse options for less all over campus. That is a very real issue. Or it was a very real issue due to tons of kids bringing lunch from home or buying snacks from students coupled to the fact that lunch is now free for Skyline students.
My final verdict: Although, the district brings up all kinds of reasons for why students distributing snacks on it’s campuses should be outlawed, students should be allowed to sell food on campus because the reality of the situation is that they don’t enforce the rules enough to make a difference, anyway.
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