BY MATT SIMPSON

There is a new coin-operated contraption by the gymnasium in Oxford High School. This new gizmo is what is known as a vending machine, and it was moved near the gym at the beginning of the year.

“The vending machine was located in the counselor’s office, but it wasn’t getting any use in the counselor’s office,” Oxford High principal Bradley Roberson said. “I thought that it would get more use if it was in a location to where more students could see it each day.”

This machine holds water, diet sodas, and Powerade, the usual liquid refreshments that would be found in a typical high school drink vendor.

There is – or was – one glaring peculiarity about this drink machine, though: it contained regular, sugar-filled carbonated beverages.

However, the sugary drinks will not be refilled once they run out. So say aloha (the goodbye version) to the sweet taste of original Coca-Cola and all the other thirst-quenching soft drinks.

“We are bound by state law to only have water, Powerade, and things like that in those machines for students during the school day,” Roberson said.

Some students could not care less whether there are regular sodas in the machine.

“I’m fine with that,” junior Anna Porter Hall said. “I can get sodas at home or anywhere else, so it didn’t really affect me.”

Other students are somewhat upset because they need the caffeine.

Nicholas Sessums, a sophomore, said, “If we don’t get enough sleep, Coke might be the only thing we have to keep us up.”

Roberson assures that all drink machines in the school will have only healthy beverages, and “that’s what they will have moving forward.”