Throughout the class of 25’s entire high school career, the idea of leaving school for lunch without consequence has seemed out of reach, But the administrators have heard their students and offered seniors the opportunity to leave during lunch. Many students in the senior class were excited by the news and most were left speechless. Unfortunately, the excitement was tempered when the class learned what rules were to be followed.
A student can only leave if they have IRT before or after lunch. Unfortunately, this means that the seniors who decided to take an extra class won’t be able to try out this new privilege. Mr. Carroll, one of the assistant principals, explained the reason behind this. “ The seniors wouldn’t make it to [their] car and out of this parking lot in under 10 or 15 minutes, and now you’ve got 30 minutes to make it somewhere, order food, wolf it down and run back” said Mr. Carroll. The idea of having all the seniors leave during lunch in such a short amount of time may be fun and exciting, but as Mr. Carroll states, “that’s a recipe for car accidents and tardies.”
The process to sign in and out for off campus lunch is quite simple. Mr. Carroll explains. “You’re going to use the scanner in a Chromebook, you’re going to scan out, and then it’s going to record that you’ve left, and then when you come back in, we’re going to ask that everybody enters through the auditorium patio. Mr. Burrows is going to be there, and he’ll let you in. Many of the other rules are pretty simple to follow. No bringing outside food back for underclassmen, no being late to the next class, and no taking non-seniors. Seniors would also only be allowed to leave if they are a “student in good standing”. This means that if a student gets poor grades, has been caught with substances, or has too many tardies/absences, then they can’t go off campus for lunch.
Fortunately, there wouldn’t be a case where one bad student ruins it for the rest of the seniors. Mr. Carroll states “ the goal is to try it in the first marking period, work out [the] kinks, as long as kids behave appropriately and normally, and then try it again in the second marking period.”
Many students are quite thrilled for this new privilege. Guiliana Rolli is looking forward to “going to lunch with Brooke Cardinal!” Senior Lauren Zito is looking forward to “going to Panera or Chipotle.”
The one exception that disappointed most was that they are only allowed to leave on a scheduled day once a marking period. Many students have complaints about this.Senior Isabella Soares believes that, “the once a quarter thing is unfair because [the administrators] made it seem like we could leave every IRT rotation” Zito brought up the point of “What if somebody’s absent? Then they won’t be able to go off campus until the next marking period.” The reason behind the once a marking period schedule is so that the staff can work out problems that occur when first starting the program.
Senior Juliana Davidman has strong opinions on the no outside food in school rule as well. She states,”by saying, like, it’s a rule, and if it gets broken too many times we could get the program taken away is just like them trying to take the program away because, like, that’s not gonna happen”. Davidman made some pretty strong points on why she thinks this way, but the administration believes this will be successful.
Mr. Carroll states “I have high expectations for our students, so , I don’t see such widespread disregard that, like, we’re gonna pull the program, but we’ll… take it one, one step at a time and see how it goes”. The main downside to the once a marking period schedule is that kids aren’t going to care as much about following the rules because there isn’t that much to lose. Soares states, “It’s a little bit silly and no one’s going to sign up because what’s the point?” Davidman had her own suggestions for how to run the program: “If the first two times go smoothly, then for the third and fourth quarter, we should have it at every IRT.” To this end, Mr. Carroll remarked that “ Who knows? Maybe in the spring, we decide to do it more times. I don’t know. I can’t promise that, but anything’s possible”.
Clearly, nothing is set in stone. As long as the majority of seniors respect the rules and the staff work out the kinks, there might be more opportunities out there. Whatever the outcome may be, the seniors are going to make the most of it!
