Imagine that you are a high school student. Everyday, you eat lunch with your friends at the fast food place near your school. You order your usual double cheeseburger with French fries and go to sit down with your friends. They’re standing by the wall, waiting for another group to get up so you can sit at your usual table by the vending machine. Ten minutes go by before the group finally leaves. When you sit down and look at your cell phone, you realize that you have only three minutes to get to class! You scarf down your double cheeseburger and manage to squeeze in a few French fries before you hastily start for the door. You try to put on your fleece, it’s a rather blustery day, but it won’t zipper up all the way and fits you much more snuggly than it used to. Now you have a mere two minutes to cross the street and race up the stairs through the throng of students. When you finally get to class, the late bell has already rung and you’re out of breath. Your teacher decides that taking 5 off your essay due today is reasonable punishment, not that he believes you will ever get an A anyways. I am writing this essay to express my opinion on closing down the fast food restaurant that recently opened across from my school. My opinion is it should be shut down. I believe the way I do because students return late from lunch, fast food is extremely unhealthy, and not all students can fit in at once.

Students return late to class after eating at the fast food place across from school. When students come to class late, they are not only taking away from themselves, but they are disrupting the students who were on time. Pupils who are not punctual are often unprepared as well. They may have forgotten about an assignment because they are too concerned with spending time with their friends. Teachers tend to get annoyed with students who choose not to complete assignments, which would already start the class off on a negative note. Also, class time is taken advantage of when teachers are forced to discipline students instead of educating.

Fast food is extremely unhealthy. Eating foods with such high fat content everyday can cause health issues such as diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. A double cheeseburger from a popular fast food chain contains 421 calories and 21 grams of fat! In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of teenagers who struggle with obesity. Students with health issues have difficulty with their schoolwork and often are unable to participate in all the activities that they wish to. Our nation already has a stereotype of being home to lazy, overweight people and I do not believe that we should reinforce that belief. For example, according to www.americansportsdata.com/obesitystats.asp, between 1962 and 2000, the number of obese Americans grew from 13% to and alarming 31% of the population. 63% of Americans are overweight with a BMI (Body Mass Index) in excess of 25.0. And the most shocking fact of all is that obesity is responsible for over 300,000 deaths nationwide each year!

Not all students can fit into the fast food place at once. This leads to long lines, disputes, and shambles. Teenagers often become rowdy due to their lack of patience. Nobody wants irritated kids hanging around. Students will often crowd around the outside of the restaurant, disrupting the daily traffic. When lots of people are confined in a small area, problems will most likely arouse. For instance, on the popular television show Survivor, people are forced to live together for 39 days in basically the middle of nowhere. Many disputes occur after being stuck together for so long. When there are too many high school students in one small restaurant, they will not get along.

I believe that students should be forbidden from going to the fast food restaurant during school hours. Students return late to class, there is not enough room for everyone, and fast food is extremely unhealthy. I urge to side with me because I know that you do not want to witness another generation of young America deal with obesity, and struggle through their schoolwork. The future of our nation needs to be healthy and well prepared to take on whatever challenges they may face, and a fast food restaurant will most certainly not help that cause.