Anthony Bisco and Solo Eliante’s lunchtime tradition is on hold.

Nearly every day during the school year, the Portland High School students leave school to make the short walk across Congress Street to the One City Center food court to buy lunch. But last week, citing months of bad behavior, the building’s management company prohibited all students from the school from staying to eat once their orders are ready.

Students are vowing to boycott the building and Bisco says he’s worried about the impact on Tic Tac O and City Deli, where he frequently buys lunch.

“I don’t think (the decision) was smart at all,” he said. “Businesses are going to go out. I feel bad for them.”

Anthony Bisco, left, a junior at Portland High School, talks about the recent ban on Portland High School students eating in the food court at One City Center in Portland. At right is PHS senior Solo Eliante. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

The food court at One City Center has been a popular gathering spot for PHS students for years. Grabbing lunch at City Deli or Tic Tac O is something of a rite of passage for students, who are allowed to leave the school building during lunch and begin spreading out across the Old Port around 11 a.m. on weekdays.

Bob Keegan, president of Dirigo Management Co., which manages One City Center, said they can still come in to buy food, but they can no longer sit in the food court because of  rowdy behavior that has included multiple fights, vaping and the loud use of vulgar language.

“Unfortunately, it’s a few that ruin it for everybody,” Keegan said. “There have been physical fights between students and frequent cases of vulgarity used between students. We’ve had two different occasions where male students decided to hang out with no shirt on.”

Keegan said there also have been instances of students vaping inside, vandalizing the building and generally treating the property and its staff with disrespect. A few months ago, Dirigo Management reached out to school administration about the issues and put in place a weeklong ban as a warning, but the behavior continued to worsen, he said.

Tenants of One City Center and nearby buildings who come to the food court to eat or for meetings complained to management about the behavior, Keegan said.

“It was a tough decision to make. These places (in the food court) get a lot of business from the high school students during their lunch periods,” he said. “Our first priority is to the tenants, and we have tenants who were not comfortable going to the food court during the day when students were here.”

SCHOOL SAYS IT MET WITH STUDENTS

Asked about One City Center’s new rule, the school district issued a statement.

“This decision was made by Dirigo without consultation with Portland High School or the district, so we refer all questions to Dirigo,” it said. “PHS has met with students to discuss the situation.”

On Monday, small signs that said “reserved” or “for tenants only” sat on most tables in the nearly empty food court. About a dozen students stopped in shortly after noon to buy food at the restaurants or from the newsstand on the level above the food court. They all headed back toward the high school within minutes.

A sign at City Deli in the food court area at One City Center on Monday reads “Roses are red, Bulldogs wear blue, PHS we still love you.” Portland High School students have been banned from eating at One City Center in Portland after a number of disruptive events in the food court of the Portland office building. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Erica Plourde, who with her husband, George Naaman, runs Tic Tac O in the food court, said this is the first time in the 33 years they’ve been in business that high school students have not been allowed to stay to eat. She had noticed that lunchtime has been louder this year than in years past, she said, and she’d heard that  tenants had been complaining.

“They’ve never kicked them out before,” Plourde said during a lull between the high school’s two lunch periods.

Plourde said many of her customers are high school students and called the situation “unfortunate.”

“We hope they will still come, but I’m sure it will have an impact,” she said.

Across the food court, a dry erase board in front of City Deli carried a message for students: “Roses are red, Bull Dogs wear blue, PHS we still (love) you.” The owner declined to speak to a reporter about the management company’s decision.

DECISION UPSETS STUDENTS

A lot of students are upset about the decision and have decided to boycott One City Center, according to some who stopped in to buy lunch Monday.

Portland High School students Keegan Pierce, left, and Connor Daniels discuss the recent ban on Portland High School students eating in the food court at One City Center in Portland. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Eliante, a 17-year-old senior, said he saw some rowdy behavior, but it was limited to a few students and not reflective of how most students act. He said there isn’t room in the high school cafeteria for all students to stay on campus for lunch.

Connor Daniels and Keegan Pierce, both 15, said they used to go to the food court every day and questioned the building’s decision.

“I don’t agree with it. We haven’t done that much,” Daniels said. “I go every day and I haven’t seen anything.”

Pierce said no one has told students exactly what led to the decision.

“We can’t learn from that if we don’t know what we did,” she said.

Lucas Santana, 15, a freshman, stopped by the newsstand in the building to buy a snack during his lunch break. He said he wasn’t surprised about the decision based on the behavior he has seen in the past.

“I think it’s fair and appropriate they put the restriction,” he said. “They’re not stopping you from buying things.”

Keegan, of Dirigo Management, said the company likely will keep the current ban on students sitting in the food court in place through the end of the school year and then re-evaluate the situation.

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