“Soon the sidewalks and crosswalks will be full of students eager to get home,” says Camelia Juarez, a news reporter for KSAT 12. Many students walk to the center of town after school; mainly to places like Panera, Lemonberry, Marcs, and Starbucks.
Payton Fuller, a freshman at BBH states, “ I think its fun to spend time with friends and relax.” Fuller often walks to Lemonberry and Panera with her friends. She says that when she walks, it’s only once or twice a month. It is a fun activity after a long day of school. It is also great to get in a good mile walk. This can be a healthy thing for students who walk downtown more than once a week.
Walking from school provides an opportunity to hang out with friends and decompress after a long day. On Fridays, when the BBHHS football has a home game, students usually walk after school until the start of the game, meaning they walk for a total of five hours. Students often go to more places on those Fridays since they have to walk back to school as well. This is often when students go places like Marcs or CVS.
The busiest days for walking are Fridays because of the weekend and being able to stay up later. On the days leading up to Friday, you’ll only see a few students or sometimes none. This is because students often have sports, practices, or work that need to catch up on. Many people who go walking rarely go if it isn’t a Friday or any type of event.
Even though for students walking is seen as something fun and relaxing, store workers don’t agree. Workers are often disrespected and made fun of by students such as middle schoolers. Ben Glowik, the Starbucks manager located on Brecksville Road, says, “Both high schoolers and middle schoolers are disrespectful and especially rowdy with their friends.” For places like Starbucks and Panera that serve food, students are mostly obnoxious, though Panera usually has older students so it’s a lot calmer.
Glowik says “Being a manager, I have to leave my station a lot when I could be helping out, but I have to take my time in the cafe to make sure students are being respectful.” I’m sure many of his employees agree with this statement. There are many times going into Starbucks on a Friday when there has been a worker telling students to stop doing things that they proceed to do over and over again until the point where they are kicked out.
Thus this activity has different viewpoints from students and workers. It is still a fun experience even with all the chaos. Walking downtown is something that may always be considered obnoxious but may always continue. It’s a cheap activity for students to take part in.
