Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There are thousands of schools in this country and they all have different rules, don't they? I know that in a nearby city, kids can go wherever they like for lunch. Our HS, OTOH, is pretty rural and the campus is closed. It wouldn't make sense to allow them to go off campus for lunch.
When I was in HS we were allowed to leave early in senior year, had a true "free period" to either socialize in the cafeteria, go to the library to study/do homework or go outside to a student area.
And when I was in high school, there was a designated smoking area -- for teachers AND for students. Times change .....
Private schools allow independent periods and allow seniors to leave campus for lunch. There is no reason, other than bureaucracy that public schools feel compelled to implement. I feel that much of the bureaucracy is imposed by districts on individual schools, but it exists.
Yes there is. Parents. Parents hold us accountable for anything their child does, therfore, we have to keep their child in eyesight.
We had closed campus, because, as a rural consolidated high school, there was literally nowhere to go for lunch without driving, and allowing students to drive over lunch opened up liability concerns.
I did not feel imprisoned in school. The rules did not seem draconian or unreasonable. We did not have assigned seats at lunch (at assemblies, in most classes, etc.). Rules were primarily and rather obviously designed around student safety. Parents expect that their children will be supervised when they are in school, and policies are generally designed to support this. I had plenty of freedom in my life as a teenager. I didn't require that school not have rules in order for me to feel like I was being afforded freedom.
We had closed campus, because, as a rural consolidated high school, there was literally nowhere to go for lunch without driving, and allowing students to drive over lunch opened up liability concerns.
I did not feel imprisoned in school. The rules did not seem draconian or unreasonable. We did not have assigned seats at lunch (at assemblies, in most classes, etc.). Rules were primarily and rather obviously designed around student safety. Parents expect that their children will be supervised when they are in school, and policies are generally designed to support this. I had plenty of freedom in my life as a teenager. I didn't require that school not have rules in order for me to feel like I was being afforded freedom.
We had an open campus until the day one student got hit by a semi while crossing a busy street trying to get to a party store at lunch time. They closed the campus real fast after that.
How does your district handle the in loco parentis rulings? We've been told that we can't allow students to leave campus during school hours because of this doctrine. We're always told the horror story of the two seventh graders who skipped class and went up on the catwalk in the auditorium, where one boy fell to his death and was decapitated. The teacher was saved only because she had turned in a cut slip on the students. Otherwise, she would have been criminally and civilly liable for his death.
At a school where I taught, a young woman was cutting class to go turn tricks in an apartment across the street. Fortunately, I did not teach her.
I have no idea...because I don't think there's ever been any big issues. The issues you described probably would've/could've happened even without open campus, no?
schools vary according to their community. i teach in the bible belt where before each graduation the lord's prayer is read allowed by the valedictorian and the entire class. has been this way since i've been here going on 8 years and i assume before. my hometown back in Ohio would have never seen this happen as someone would have called the supper before the prayer was finished.
when i was student teaching in Toledo, Ohio a neighboring school district allowed their kids time to go off campus for lunch each day and essentially operated their school like a college campus. bear in mind the school served a little under 300 kids and was not upper middle but definitely UPPER class. conversely the school i student taught at did not even allow kids regardless of grade level to carry book bags to and from class.
i remember in being in high school in the mid 90s when we had attendance scanners where each morning you swiped your ID card to verify you were present at school. now whether you went to class or not was a totally different story.
as someone already mentioned too much liability exists today for schools K - 12 that teachers, counselors and principals have to keep a close eye on EVERYTHING.
High schools often have restrictions that would be considered draconian in other environments.
For example, in my high school, we were not allowed to go to the bathroom or library without a special pass. This was true even when the teacher was at her desk and work was finished. We could certainly not leave early.
The parking lot was strictly off-limits, again without a pass (which was not always granted), and regularly patrolled by the school liason officer. We were a closed campus, so no leaving for lunch or if you forgot something at home or just to go on a walk on the school's nature trail - even if you were 18.
If you got done with your in-class work early, or simply had no class that hour, the student commons area was still off-limits.
Granted, these rules had their rationale, and liability issues could arise without some of them. But I could not resist feeling like I was imprisoned sometimes.
Did you feel like you were a prisoner in high school? Do you think these rules should, generally, be more lax? Foreign exchange students from Europe sometimes speak of the strictness of American high schools in this regard. British sixth-form students even have on-site pubs for the students in some of their schools.
Or should it be stricter, with more military-style regimentation, for example regular locker inspections not only for contraband but also for organization and cleanliness (which they said we were going to have in middle school, but it never materialized) and assigned lunch seating?
What say you?
i hated that i needed to ask permission to go to the bathroom then i had to sign in and out. they also locked the bathrooms between classes, which meant you had no choice but to go during class. so i definitely agree these restrictions should go.
however, i also recognize that it seems like many parents think the school is the babysitter of their kids and not simply the place to be educated and tested academically. so if parents will sue over the school because they are failures as parents, then i guess the freedoms of the kids must be limited.
I was in high school long before Columbine and we had similar rules as in the OP.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Momma_bear
Private schools allow independent periods and allow seniors to leave campus for lunch. There is no reason, other than bureaucracy that public schools feel compelled to implement. I feel that much of the bureaucracy is imposed by districts on individual schools, but it exists.
This depends on the private school.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark of the Moon
And when I was in high school, there was a designated smoking area -- for teachers AND for students. Times change .....
When I was in HS there was no smoking area for students. Teachers could smoke in the teacher's lounge. Whenever the door opened, a cloud of cigarette smoke wafted out. Then there were smoking areas for students as well. Now we've come full circle and there's no smoking for anyone!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
