Walking on a half day? Good or Bad Idea

Dodd Middle School gets a lot of half days, well at least so far in the year, and this is a problem for some people. As you might already know a large amount of the students walk around after school gets out on these days. Many of the students head to the Maplecroft Plaza in town because its so close and it has a variety of places to eat. When there are a large amount of kids all together it can’t come to a good outcome. Kids go through stores knocking things off shelves and making a giant mess within the stores and also disrupting residents. And businesses have had enough, some of the smaller stores kick kids out before they get a chance to do anything. For example last half day on the 21st of November,  I walked. Subway kicked me out when I walked in to say “Hey” to a friend. They were asking kids if they were gonna buy anything when they first walked in. If the response was no, you were out. But places like Rite-Aid and Stop and Shop can’t do anything about it, and just end up cleaning up after us.

I think that everyone’s fuss about it is legit, I’ve seen it happen, kids wrecking stores. I’ve been there when it happens and I completely understand why this is a problem. The other day I was sitting in Froyo after the rush left with two of my friends, and we were just sitting there talking, and the manager started sweeping and from under one of the tables out came a donut with one bite taken out of it. My friends and I laughed ‘cause we didn’t expect that to really be there. After we laughed the three of us started to talk to him. We asked what kinda stuff he finds and he said all types of crazy stuff. I then said “well with all the kids from the school you must do pretty well on these types of days” He then said “We always do well, these days we just need to do more clean up”. I thought that the stores might be a little happy because they make so much on those days but it seems they think of it as more work at the end of the day. I think it’s fun walking with friends but in the end it’s just stupid to go to Maplecroft because everyone goes there and you’re more likely to get in trouble there than anywhere else. So, if you’re going to walk, go somewhere else.

~Eddie