“I do not feel any better,” Laura Stubbs said. “It is not in the best interest of the children.”
She was one of about 50 parents who attended the meeting at the northeast Cobb kindergarten through fifth-grade school to find out more about why May implemented a “quiet lunch” and one of about 115 people who have signed the online petition “Rocky Mount Quiet Time Needs to Stop!”
Under the new rules, a TV screen in the cafeteria cycles through pictures telling students to either “whisper talk” or be quiet.
“They have five minutes of quiet and then a little bell rings, the cue, then they have five minutes of whisper talk,” May said.
The students’ lunchtime is 30 minutes long, but those who finish early are taken outside to sit in a play area.
“Once they get out there, they must sit down,” she said. “This is where there has also been a bone of contention, because the students have to sit on their bottoms. The purpose is because if they sit on their knees, knees turn into knee walking, etc.”
May said the practice’s aim is to make noise “tolerable” during lunchtime, which is between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.
“Loud cafeterias are a perpetual, systemic problem for every school,” May said. “In elementary school, we all struggle with the noise level because children just have a difficult time regulating that.”
May said the cafeteria would otherwise be so loud it disrupts nearby classrooms in the 600-student school.
May said they school has tried different methods to control the noise level in the lunchroom, including putting red cones on tables the first 10 minutes of lunch to indicate quiet time or using red, yellow and green cups to show when a student can talk or whisper.
“The challenge with those things is that it’s pretty labor intensive,” she said.
May said parents have complained to her about the changes.
“We have a small handful of parents who have taken this on and feel very strongly about it,” she said. “I’ve heard some of their descriptions about how the children are feeling … I’m in that cafeteria every day and in this building. I look at the kids and they are happy.”
Rocky Mount parent Tonya Neilson said the administration was not upfront with parents about the new practice.
“If she had just come to the parents and not tried to hide it, they wouldn’t have been so upset,” said Neilson, whose son is a first-grader at Rocky Mount.
Neilson said the rule isn’t always enforced.
She said that when she went to lunch with her son, she saw children talking during “quiet time,” and while children were not punished when she was there, she has heard from other parents that on other days students were threatened with either walking the track or being put at the silent table.
“We want the rule that’s working to be the one that’s being enforced,” she said.
Neilson said she told Area Assistant Superintendent Ed Thayer about her concerns, but he told her that he “respected (May’s) authority and would not make any changes.”
However, Neilson said she left the meeting Thursday feeling she had been heard and appreciates May trying to communicate better with parents.
“I am not out to make Mrs. May’s life miserable,” she said. “I did speak and was heard during the meeting. I don’t know if everyone feels this way, but I did address the issue.”
Another parent who attended the Thursday meeting but asked not to be identified said she was concerned about the new rule because her fourth-grade daughter was coming home saying she didn’t like school anymore.
“We know that they are there for learning, but (my daughter) used to like lunchtime because she could talk to her friends without getting into trouble,” the mother said. “We should be encouraging our students to learn social skills.”
She said the meeting was hostile, with May “mocking parents, as if we don’t have our children’s best interests at heart.”
“(Children) should be allowed adequate social time, just like teachers are allowed to take a break, go to their lunchroom and socialize,” she said. “I am just very disappointed at the way it was rolled out.”
May said she did take suggestions from parents on how to resolve the issue but could not say when or if they would be implemented.
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115 parents have signed the petition, and 50 attended the meeting. There are over 1200 parents at Rocky Mount. How can you say that "a majority" of parents are "outraged"?
There are about 400 families at RM so unless there are three parents per family...might wanna check your math
Sope Creek- don't touch the precious germ covered murals our children painted years ago
Rocky Mount
I hope the administration and the parents can find a happy medium and work this out.
Is CCSD "quiet" time a demand of FLOTUS.
If so, IGNORE it!
Then the RM principal wouldn't have to have silent lunch all the time. What is your solution.
Go and volunteer to see what is going on instead of whining about whether or not your child gets to talk to his or her friends at lunch. Do it at RECESS!
These friggin' nazicrat "educators" are unhinged.
TSA continually tries to push the envelop to demand arbitrary, strict and absolute obedience of the American People!
Go for it, New Mama! There are also great resources out there to help you.
I personally didnt have the patience to homeschool my kids but I praise anyone who does.
Isn't there a happy medium here? I'm back in elementary school again with my younger children and nothing has changed that much in the cafeteria since 1996. So what's the problem at Rocky Mount that the principal has resorted to absolute silence and cooperation or a child will be isolated and punished for simply talking? Maybe parents need to talk with their kids at home and explain about the cafeteria being a quiet place, like a restaurant. Kids usually respond well to earnest explanations about having manners if it's reinforced enough. How about an incentive system, with maybe ice cream for the quietest table at the end of the week, or even a simple quiet certificate or special table decoration....has the principal already tried these methods?
Can the adults agree that talking should be ok, even in large cafeterias... but not yelling or other bad behavior?
My kindergartener, a big talker, comes home with a half-uneaten lunch. She says she has no time to eat. I know she's talking, but do I want absolute silence in the lunchroom? NO way. Kids need to talk, and should not be treated like little automatons, and parents should be able to discuss without getting nasty. However one feels about "east Cobb," the nasty stereotypes posted here are really immature. Every school should have the expectation that kids will behave as well as being treated with respect. East Cobb or Powder Springs...it should not matter.
Sounds to me like this is a design flaw with the school. Our cafeterias were always a flurry of chatter and activity, and they never bothered nearby classrooms, and in fifth grade the cafeteria was on the wall opposite of our classroom. We never heard a peep, save for when classes would line up in the hallway for lunch.
Imagine being told you cannot move around or speak your entire eight-hour work shift and see how you feel. If you wouldn't like it, then why expect children just out of Pull-Ups to do it?