I’ve been seeing a lot of people talk about how the admins of Zeeland East High School are walking around the parking lot during lunch period telling kids they cannot eat in their cars. Their given reason is that there is a whole lunch room we can eat in. While this is a valid reason there’s many reasons why this shouldn’t mean we cannot eat in our cars. We, as teenagers enjoy our alone time. In the lunch room we cannot be fully alone. Lots of students need alone time to readjust and simply just relax before having to go back to class. We are comfortable in the space of our cars and feel comfortable alone in them. Being alone in the comfort of our cars is very different than being alone with hundreds of people around us. As high schoolers a lot of us deal with mental health issues: anxiety, eating disorders, sensory issues, etc. And feel more comfortable eating alone. I know a lot of students have sat in the bathroom to get their alone time but this freedom was taken away from us. It’s not like we’re sitting in our cars during class to skip, it’s OUR lunchtime, OUR freetime. Our rights and freedoms to our own cars should never be taken away from us. If we cannot eat alone in the comfort of our vehicles, there should be rooms available for students to sit in.