Gum Policy at Britton Middle School

    Some students may ask, “Why aren’t we allowed to chew gum at school?” If you look under some of the desks in classrooms, you’ll know why. There is gum everywhere. The students stick the gum underneath the desk, or spit it out, not in a trash can. I used to wonder what the black spots on the ground were. I eventually figured out they were gum. That is nasty. We shouldn’t have to step on gum wherever we walk. Mr. Nathanson’s science classes were allowed to chew gum, because he saw an article on Yahoo that explained gum made you smarter. He allowed that rule for about a week, until the gum started appearing under desks. Also, he said that moving our mouths so much made us “talk-aholics”. The gum policy at Britton has been enforced greatly. Most teachers if they see a student chewing gum, they will make them spit it out and most likely give them a detention.

    I asked some students about how they feel about the gum rule at Britton. One said “I think that rule is stupid. Everyone should be allowed to chew gum. I like gum. I don’t see why we can’t chew gum.” Another said “I think it’s a good rule because there is gum all over the place. And stepping in gum is nasty too.” One more said “I hate that rule. I chew gum all the time at home, so I don’t think it should be disallowed at school.” I asked Mr. Levis how he felt. “I think it is a good rule. If you just look under the desks, on the ground, and on the floor, you’ll see why we don’t allow gum. I’ve been at schools where we allowed gum, but it quickly was changed. Gum appeared everywhere. At the beginning of the year, I have to scrape gum off the bottom of the desks.”

    So you can assume why gum isn’t allowed. If the students started spitting their gum out in the trash can all the time and not making a mess, it might be allowed again. Students are mad that we aren’t allowed to chew gum at school, but it’s their fault. If they followed simple rules, they would be allowed to chew gum.