For the past two years, Hopewell Valley Central High School has had the privilege of having two televisions in its cafeteria. Yet, aside from voting on what channels should be shown, the school has never polled the student body on its opinion of this recent addition. Knowing the students’ and teachers’ opinions on this matter can help provide insight on the issue, as well as additional feedback on how they should spend their money, and what they should spend it on. Interviews and polls with students and teachers have revealed that perhaps these televisions were not worth the money the district spent to attain them.

    A poll of 100 students, during 6^th and 7^th period lunch, reveals that students have not been watching the televisions. 42 of these students were sophomores, and 58 of these students were juniors. (Freshmen could not be polled because televisions were not functional this year, and none of the seniors responded to the polls).

    For the poll, students were asked whether they watched the televisions during lunch last year. The results showed that 39% of those students watched the televisions, and 61% of them did not. Approximately 58% of the students who watched the televisions were sophomores, and 41% were juniors. Of the students who did not watch the televisions, approximately 31% were sophomores and 68% were juniors.

    Social Studies teacher Robert Siris, a proctor during 7^th period lunch, acknowledges that he has not observed many students watching the televisions last year. “For the most part they’re not paying attention [to the televisions]” he observed, while monitoring the cafeteria.

    Sophomore Sydney Kobil offers an opinion that parallels Siris’ observations. She feels that she doesn’t really pay attention to the televisions, preferring to socialize with friends rather than watch the televisions. Others seemed to share the same opinion.

    These opinions and statistics begs the question: Were the televisions worth obtaining? Siris believes that they are good additions to the cafeteria, rationalizing that they enable students to get potentially informative news stories and sports news.

    However, students seem to think otherwise. Junior Scott Muhlstein, says that even though he enjoys watching ESPN during lunch, he thinks that it was not a good idea to get the televisions in the cafeteria. “You don’t need to watch TV at lunch,” he said. “People only watch them ‘cause they’re there.”
    Freshmen Andrew Wagner and Kyle Kuschyk agree that the televisions were “not worth getting” because “the televisions are never on, and students don’t have any control over them.” 
    The televisions at HVCHS are covered with plastic shields in order to prevent any kind of tampering with the channels. Principal Michael Daher says that the shields also protect the televisions from flying objects and food, which may or, hopefully, may not be thrown during lunches. Also, the students are limited to watching CNN and ESPN, due to a vote that was taken by the student body.

    If students had more control over the televisions, would it increase the viewership of these televisions?

    Mr. Daher says that the amount of control the students have over the televisions depends on the situation. If the televisions are being used by a club, the students will have more accessibility to them then during lunches. “It would get too chaotic if we had 350 students fighting over the channels,” Mr. Daher says.

    Sydney Kobil shares a similar opinion with Mr. Daher regarding giving students more control over the televisions during lunches. “I guess it could be okay sometimes,” she said “but it could also be bad because of the different types of shows that people watch.”

    Overall, the student body seems to think that the televisions were not worth obtaining. The polls reveal that viewership of the televisions have been low in previous years. Even if students were given more control, it would most likely lead to chaos and fighting over what channels should be picked. The televisions in the cafeteria, which go mostly unwatched, create some question of why the school purchased them to begin with.