Bob Jones High School is just like a prison, especially when it comes to lunch.  We can’t leave campus for food, and we should be able to, even if it’s only a senior privilege.  I understand that some people will skip school and not come back. There should be a disciplinary action for that.

Outside of a short break in the morning, lunch time is the only time we have a chance to socialize and to refresh ourselves, and even then, lunch is like courtyard-time for prisoners. It’s one of the small freedoms we have during our hours at school.

The only reasons that come to mind for our not leaving campus are that the schools will lose money if we’re not buying lunch and that they don’t want to be liable for student injury once they leave campus.  The Hill adds that students who leave campus are allowing their students to choose unhealthy lunch options at fast food restaurants while healthier lunches are left uneaten back at the school.

Some other schools allow students to leave campus.  How do these schools make it work?

Some schools have students pay a fee in order to leave campus.  At Seabreeze High School in Florida, students pay $20 for the right to leave campus for the year.  Leaving campus for lunch is used as a motivator for good grades and good attendance at Zionsville Community High School.

Some schools have had lunch privileges like this for a long time.  In New Jersey, Fort Lee students successfully petitioned for their right to have lunch off campus after a new superintendent took their 50+ year tradition away.

According to Debate.Org polls, most people support students being able to leave campus for lunch.  An NPR piece estimates that approximately 25% of high schools allow students to leave campus.

We are sitting either in desks or at a table for at least 5 hours of the 8 hours we are at school. Our minds get tired of having school 5 out of the 7 days of the week.  We are students of Bob Jones High School; we are not prisoners.  We should have the right to eat where we want.