DoorDashing, while convenient for students, is often quite bothersome for teachers. Students will find excuses to leave class without realizing the potential safety concerns and long-term impacts associated with it. To maintain a focused learning environment, students must put in the effort to be present during lessons. If they aren’t, they risk losing class time, falling behind in content and causing distractions in the classroom environment.
Math and computer science teacher Savannah McDonnell has seen this issue in her class. She is concerned that more and more students are lying and cutting class in order to retrieve food, effectively distracting other students in the process.
“When (DoorDash) is in the classroom and a student needs to leave class, the food attracts attention,” McDonnell said. “I definitely think it is a problem. (DoorDashing) has definitely increased post-pandemic.”
McDonnell notes that if students constantly leave her class to pick up food, there will be repercussions. However, unlike McDonnell, senior Aarya Bhushan finds DoorDash a useful tool because there are no walkable restaurants nearby.
“There’s not really anywhere (students) can go without a car,” she said. “School lunch is not enough, so they will have to DoorDash.”
Despite DoorDash being a straight-forward alternative for students, Bhushan sympathizes with teachers who are inconvenienced by DoorDashing.
“I think (students) are more inclined to DoorDash because it’s convenient, but I understand why teachers get annoyed,” she said. “There is not a proper way to go pick up your DoorDash and there isn’t an understanding if it’s allowed or not.”
Freshman Shaoie Chan Chordia echoes Bhushan’s sentiment, under- standing that it can be both disruptive and beneficial for certain students.
“I think it is a little disruptive when someone is actively planning their DoorDash order during class, but I (don’t) think of (it as a) major disruption,” Chordia said. “Maybe students don’t have the time or knowledge to make their own lunch, or they prefer prepared food — it’s faster and considering grocery prices, sometimes it’s cheaper.”
In addition to rising concern from teachers, according to Assistant Principal of Safety Dr. Mycal Hixon, administrators are also concerned about students’ safety on the Gunn campus.
DoorDashing can pose a number of campus security concerns. The process of purchasing food through an online third-party retailer relies on unauthorized adults entering campus to drop off the food. The issue with this is that staff doesn’t know the delivery person and whether or not they could be a potential threat.
“(Administrators) have to continue to make sure that it is safe,” Hixon said. “There is a drop-off station at the main office, but it doesn’t always make it to the main office. Some of the Dashers are constantly calling students and students are leaving class, losing class time trying to pick it up.”
Hixon proposed a possible system to relieve some of the staff’s safety concerns.
“Something we could do is placing signs throughout the parking lot, clearly saying that (DoorDash drivers) need to check into the main office,” Hixon said. “(Campus supervisors) should be more vigilant about this and make sure (unauthorized) people aren’t walking around campus.”
Ultimately, DoorDashing — a seemingly harmless way of obtaining food for students — has the unintended effect of promoting the act of cutting class and increasing the risk of safety concerns.
“It can be a great tool,” Hixon said. “We just have to continue to make sure everything is safe.”
