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No good reason for students to leave unless there are no options at all for lunch...and there are. The break is not usually long enough to go any distance at all so it only encourages kids to go out and come back late or skip out the afternoon altogether. And considering the poor quality of most available fast food, it would be wiser to bring their own lunch and save some bucks.
Our kids walk right next door to a shopping center anchored by a grocery store, which includes several healthy restaurants and a coffee shop. Many more restaurants are a short drive away. Problems with truancy are minimal, no higher than schools that do not permit kids to leave during their off periods. The kids, for the most part, are not disruptive. They buy their lunches, eat, and go back to class as expected. This is a public high school with nearly 4,000 students by the way, and every student has lunch scheduled either fourth, fifth, or sixth period plus an additional period to use at their discretion. My freshman has two periods off in a row, sixth and seventh, which makes it convenient to schedule medical appointments. My senior has three off periods (out of eight) this semester, and she uses her time to study or leaves campus for calculus tutoring or even comes home for lunch, because we live fairly close by. Occasionally, she also eats out with her friends. I think it's a great system.
No good reason for students to leave unless there are no options at all for lunch...and there are. The break is not usually long enough to go any distance at all so it only encourages kids to go out and come back late or skip out the afternoon altogether. And considering the poor quality of most available fast food, it would be wiser to bring their own lunch and save some bucks.
My kids' lunch period is 50 minutes and there are plenty of places within 10 minutes walking distance. Local cafes, a fresh foods market, plus the typical fare like Jimmy John's and Chipotle and Starbucks. Most kids live within a 10 minute drive of school and can go home if they like, too.
This is a large, diverse public high school with 2000 students.
I never realized open campus is something people would even take issue with.
My kids' high school (large, suburban public) allows sophomores-seniors to leave campus for lunch. They are also allowed to leave if they have open periods. Most kids go home or to a fast food joint.
When I was a Junior/Senior in high school in the mid-90s, we had the same privileges. I don't remember how long our lunch period was, but we were able to get to the fast food drive thru and back before the period ended.
There was a faculty member standing at the entrance/exit to the school parking lot to check out/in students.
Many seniors would have an open period for last period, and leave early - most of them going to after school jobs.
1. Lunch is too short
2. Liability to the school
3. Kids may decide not to return for the rest of the day.
4. Too hard for the school to keep track of who is coming in and out of the building.
5. If the school allows the kids to leave, the parents have no idea where they are.
If you were to move an hour north, you'd find an absolutely enormous high school in Denver's southern suburbs that permits students from freshman year to senior year to exercise their autonomy and leave campus whenever they are not scheduled to be in class. And, believe it or not, the community has not collapsed into chaos. For the most part, the kids behave themselves, and the local restaurants and coffee shops thrive off of their business. Were we to close lunch, I think the biggest revolt would come from the shopping centers that surround our high school!
I simply don't agree with the value of it.
We don't have schools in order to boost mall profits.
I simply don't agree with the value of it.
We don't have schools in order to boost mall profits.
Sure, that's why we have open lunch. Long story short: it works. We have no higher a truancy rate than schools that do not allow students to come and go during their off periods, and our students graduate having developed the personal responsibility and time management skills to thrive in college. It's a good system.
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Long story short: it works. We have no higher a truancy rate than schools that do not allow students to come and go during their off periods, and our students graduate having developed the personal responsibility and time management skills to thrive in college. It's a good system.
