Students want freedom for lunch

  Many students are fed up with eating PB&J sandwiches every day for lunch and have noticed the dozens of restaurants less than a mile away from Carlmont, often wondering why Carlmont doesn’t have an open campus.

  An open campus during lunch is something that students have been asking for for years.The idea itself is rather simple: during lunch, students would have the chance to leave school grounds to eat. The most likely option would be to visit the Carlmont shopping center, where there are many lunch options. Then, once lunch period ends, the students would need to be back at school in time to get to their next class.

  However, executing this idea may be harder than it seems. “Allowing students to leave campus at lunch creates a liability for the school and district in the event that an injury or other situation ,” said Robert Fishtrom, Vice Principal, “Additionally, when the district did have an open occurscampus policy, attendance in the afternoon was very poor.”

  Open campus lunches could easily turn into a negative situation, where students take advantage of their freedom and treat it as an entitlement, not a privilege. However, rules could be made in order to keep open campus lunches a safe, beneficial aspect of Carlmont.

  For example, a rule could put in place that in order to be able to leave campus during lunch, a student must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher. This way, open campus lunch becomes a reward, not an entitlement. This policy would increase the effort students put into their grades, and would promote better grades at Carlmont.

  Another idea would be to limit the restaurants to where students are allowed to go. For example, students would only be able to go to the Carlmont shopping center or any of the restaurants across the street.

  In order to address the issue of the liability of a student being injured or another situation occurring while out to lunch, students could have to sign a release form before they leave campus. This form would state that the district is not liable for any injury the student sustains, or any other situation that occurs. This way, the student would know the risks before they left.

  Students are more than happy to offer opinions and advice on how to operate open campus lunches. “I think they could have a sign-in and -out sheet in the office,” said senior Monika Skinner, “Before they leave, students could write down where they’re going to lunch. That way, if they don’t come back, security could go find them in whatever location.”

  Sophomore William Lash agrees. “[The faculty] needs to make sure that we would go back to school and not ditch, no matter how tempting it may be.”

  Open campus lunches are possible at Carlmont. It would just take a little cooperation from students and faculty alike to make it happen. “Open campus lunches are a great idea,” said Skinner. “They provide more freedom and more food options to everyone. We are old enough and responsible enough to handle them.”

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