By Sean Harris ’11
The Roundup

It’s more than 100 degrees outside as I wait in the seemingly endless Brophy lunch line, for a soda.

I can’t help but think that this took less time and money the previous year.

This year regular soda was removed from the campus vending machines in favor of more healthy options.

This has left Brophy only one choice to get their favorite soft drink on campus; and right now I am standing in it.

When I get to the front of the line after 11 minutes of waiting, I am sweating from the heat and precious lunch time has been wasted by something that took a minute with the vending machines.

The soda here costs $1.25, 75 cents more than a can of soda last year.

“It is certainly annoying,” said Philip Fernandez ’11. “Especially when we have all grown accustomed to the way that it was before.”

However, the school is not to blame for the current situation.

“It was not Brophy’s decision about the vending machines,” said Director of Facilities and Food Service Mrs. Sherri Stephens in an e-mail. “It is because of a contract that Pepsi and probably Coke have with the state of Arizona to take out of schools all drinks with sweetener.”

What this means is that the state of Arizona has taken away our choice to drink soda.

However, removing blame from Brophy still doesn’t fix the problem at hand.

Eight of 10 students I asked prefer regular soda to diet.

“It tastes better,” said Rob March ’11. “There’s more variety to regular soda.”

So who is at fault for this incident?

Blame Arizona for not understanding that kids will drink soda even without the vending machines.

Blame Pepsi for making the deal and not selling soda to Brophy.

The fact is that the problem is much higher up then we realize.

It is not Brophy’s fault; it is not Michael’s fault.

The truth is for right now our right to a convenient supply of soda has been taken away from us.

And for right now, we’ll just have to deal with it.