My comment is based on an interview with a school spokesman I heard on the radio today where he stated that the silence thing is for the first ten minutes because they have had three kids nearly choke to death recently. Some advice, take anything the AP writes with a grain of salt.
Thanks for the additional info...you didn't give us that, originally.
Maybe the kids wouldn't be choking if they didn't have to gulp down their food so they could finally talk.
Something is wrong in this cafeteria, if that's the case.