You may see the signs posted outside of some rooms that say “SNACK FREE CLASSROOM”. But, why are some classrooms snack free and some aren’t?

There are two ways a classroom becomes snack free.

“Teacher discretion, where it says okay, I Allison Ginn do not want kids eating in my classroom because they leave the trash, it’s a mess, maybe I just don’t want to start something then have to break students of it later. So, I can put a snack free classroom sign out on my classroom door which then signifies that all students and any visitors that it is snack free,” Assistant Principal Allison Ginn said.

Many students and teachers say they need a snack to help them perform better in class.

“I know if I am hungry I get distracted more easily so that’s why I prefer to have a snack,” junior Mukund Mahesh said.

“We should be allowed to eat snacks in the classroom because being hungry is distracting and as athletes, we need more energy to get through the day and to be able to think efficiently,” junior Lauren Kenyon said.

“I think the biggest thing is it just really gets your brain going like when I was in these slumps. I would need to kind of munch on something, or drink something, or have something else at my disposal to say okay this is going to get me through the next 30 minutes, or this is going to get me through till the next block,” Ginn said.

Snacks also might not be allowed in your class if there are students with severe allergies.

“The real issue here is we really do have some students here at Independence who require a snack free classroom. In that case, the teachers are alerted ahead of time and they receive signs to put on their door… I have a student that needs a safe environment to be able to learn in, then in that case that snack free classroom goes up. So, you will see some doors that don’t have them that either means the teacher doesn’t mind or there’s no student that needs that type of environment,”  Ginn said.

“My classroom is snack free this year because we have a few students who have severe allergies and can not be around any by-products of any food supplements so it expands a range of peanut allergies, tree allergies all the way up to milk allergies. So, this classroom and any of the computer labs we use are snack free classrooms,” teacher Anita Roenbeck said.

Since some classrooms are snack free due to allergies some teachers say they want students to be conscious of if their classroom allows snacks.

“I just ask the kids to mindful that the situation might be different when you’re in a chemistry lab or a computer lab and you need to be careful with the food you have,” said Coach Joshua Davenport.

So, if your classroom is snack free consider eating a snack between class periods or waiting until your next class if that room is snack free.