Students call for longer lunches with off-campus passes

Makayla Bogle
Staff Writer

Lunch at SHS is the best part of the day for many students. Students get free lunch, a 30-minute break from classes, and a chance to socialize with friends. However, some students have opinions as to how lunch can be improved.

Unlike many other high schools across the state, SHS students have to stay on campus for lunch, and they cannot easily leave and come back. Many students hope for off-campus lunch for a chance to get food from other places during lunch, or even head home for those who live close enough.

A student created a petition to have open campus lunch, in which 364 students have signed. Most students who commented on the petition appear to disfavor school lunches.

“I think that it’s good option. We have the trail behind the school that’s a short walk to all of the fast food restaurants. It would give those companies more money, and I don’t want to have pizza every single day,” senior Lucy Burks said.

“I think off-campus lunch would be good, it would give students more freedom about what they get to eat. I think the option should be there, it would give students a chance to practice responsibility and time management,” senior Caleb Petrillo said.

If off-campus lunch is really something students want, they will have to take notice of a few disadvantages that will arise from it.

It could easily be assumed that having off-campus lunch would decrease attendance rates in the classes after lunch, as some students may be too tardy that they don’t even bother going to class. The only way that tardies may be prevented with an addition of off-campus lunch would be if the lunch periods were longer.

Issues arise in the bell schedule, however, with the prospective vision of longer lunches. Classes are already short on early release days, so, depending on the length added to lunches, class periods would only get shorter, or school would have to get out at a later time.

 “It could be a good option depending on the student, some people could end up skipping while others use the privilege responsibly,” senior Ruby Paulsen said.

Some students already feel as though lunch is too short. Although students get 30 minutes to eat lunch, lunch starts as soon as the bell dismisses students from class. Students find that this cuts a large portion of time out of lunch, since it may take students a while to get to the Commons.

Traffic is already a debacle in the student parking lot, just like long lines in our cafeteria, and congestion on the stairs. If students had the opportunity to leave campus during lunch they may not make it into town and back before lunch ends. When you add in the motive to go to a drive through for food, or pick up something from the store, that cuts out even more time.

“I think that traffic could get bad, depending on the amount of students that are driving. However there won’t be buses, so that’s something to think about,” Paulsen said.

Overall, the idea of off-campus lunch sounds much more appealing than it would end up being. Luckily, SHS provides free lunch for students, and that is something for which students should all be grateful.