Lunch has been prepared and provided by school staff for many years, and many changes have been made to the lunch system to accommodate students. Regardless of these changes, some students are tired of school-provided lunches or their own lunches from home, and they believe they deserve more freedom in managing their own schedules. However, if MHS begins allowing students to leave during lunch, school administrators and security will likely face problems, such as more tardies or cuts and a lack of safety on campus.
Allowing students to leave campus to buy their lunch will increase the number of students missing class, a problem many schools are already struggling to combat. An article in The New York Times titled “More Pandemic Fallout: The Chronically Absent Student” stated that absence has been “linked to weaker academic performance and can predict whether a student is more likely to drop out before finishing high school.” Even if they don’t miss entire periods, students have a higher chance of being tardy, which can impact their grades if they miss important lessons.
Safety will also become a predominant issue if there is no record of which students leave during lunch. School officials and administrators are accountable for the students and their safety during the school day. Officials won’t be able to account for students if an emergency occurs and the student needs to be contacted. This opens the school up to lawsuits; they are likely to be liable for any accidents that may occur. Schools have a “statutory duty” to protect the health and safety of students during the school day under California’s Education Code.
Additionally, the danger of an intruder on campus would increase significantly. According to School Safety Solution, “a growing number of high-profile school shootings in the US over the past decade” have caused more public schools to take student safety into consideration. With a steady rise in reported school intruders, schools need to consider the potential consequences of allowing students to leave during lunch. Allowing students to leave without requiring any identification will increase the possibility of people that don’t attend MHS coming on campus.
At high schools in Agoura, California, upperclassmen are allowed to leave during lunch. However, this leads to a new issue altogether; how will security and staff be able to differentiate between upperclassmen and the rest of the students? This would require school officials to monitor every single student that leaves and arrives back on campus, and this takes time that administrators don’t have.
Despite the push for more freedom, students should not be allowed to leave school grounds in the middle of a school day. Instead, students should take advantage of on-campus lunch to talk to their friends and participate in clubs and other activities that can be found on campus.