High school students who are oblivious to the disruptions created by their special needs should watch the classic 1982 film "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."

In the movie, stoner Jeff Spicoli (played by Sean Penn) has a pizza delivered to his history class. His authoritarian teacher, Mr. Hand (played by the late Ray Walston), did not appreciate the interruption.

"Am I hallucinating here? Just what in the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Learning about Cuba and having some food," Spicoli replied.

A different take of that scene might have played out northwest of Las Vegas at Indian Springs High School, where some teens fumed that water bottles were banned from classrooms earlier this month. Four students actually chained and handcuffed themselves to a water fountain in protest on March 14.

The school's teachers and administrators deemed bottled water a distraction and a nuisance, not just because it gives kids one more thing to fiddle with during lectures and tests, but because some students apparently couldn't resist squirting the stuff in rooms filled with papers, books and computers purchased by taxpayers.

However, school Principal Caty Christensen reversed herself Tuesday, even though food and beverages already were prohibited in classrooms before the water bottle ban was implemented. Two students, including junior Stephanie Van Sluis, who chained herself to the water fountain, apparently made a convincing case to Ms. Christensen. Among their assertions: The water that pours from the school's drinking fountains is "disgusting."

Forget, for a moment, that anyone older than 25 made it through school just fine without being allowed to bring food or drink of any kind into classrooms -- even when they were sick. And forget that school teachers and administrators are well within their rights to control what students can access in class.

Why have these Indian Springs students, their parents and administrators allowed so much time to be wasted on an issue irrelevant to education? Students have plenty of opportunity to hydrate and refresh themselves between classes, which, last we checked, were not being held in the open desert or a sauna.

To quote Mr. Hand: "Food will be eaten on your time, Mr. Spicoli."