How A Slice Of Pizza Got Me Detention

Going all my life without ever getting a detention was something I was sure I was going to be able to say reaching the final weeks during my senior year of high school. One day during the second to last week before graduation, I received my first ever detention. Thinking about that day honestly makes me wonder if the punishment for the circumstance was just or not. After listening to my story, you can decide if you feel as though the action taken by my principle was just. And this is how the story goes.

At lunch one day, a couple of senior guys who sat at another table came over and asked my table if we would be interested in getting pizza for lunch the next day. I usually packed everyday and was not real sure if I wanted pizza. Most of my table said yes, except for me and another girl who had an uneasy feeling about it. Well the next day at lunch they walked in carrying a lot of Padrone’s Pizza boxes. They were down eating the pizza and came over and told us they had enough if we wanted to go eat some. I decided that it would not hurt to simply eat a piece of pizza and as I sat down with them and started eating, my principal rages in. He said that everyone who had ate any of the pizza needed to meet with him in the hallway immediately. The fifteen of us stepped out into the hallway as the rest of the lunch room gasped and laughed, knowing that a few of us had never been in trouble before. My principal was heated and started threatening that we were all going to have to take exams and get detentions.

The controversy of why my principal was so upset, was that there was a rule that you could not bring in ordered food into the cafeteria because it took away from their service. He did not make us take exams, but we did in fact all receive detentions that day. I have multiple reasons why I feel getting in any trouble for eating the pizza in the cafeteria was unjust. First off, anyone was allowed to pack their lunch on any given day and the cafeteria allowed us to use their microwaves to heat food. There were multiple times where people would pack pizza in their lunch, so I ask, what is the difference? Another reason I feel the punishment was unjust is because I had witnessed other people have friends bring them in Subway but since it was not a big group of people it went unnoticed. If you are going to punish one group of people for a similar action, then I feel it would only be fair to punish all people the same. I also think that by telling students they can not bring ordered food into the cafeteria is trying to force more students to buy a lunch and eat the way the school wants them too, and this is wrong.

Now that you have heard my side of the story and why I feel that there was no justice, you too can make your opinion on whether or not the actions of my principal were just.