The Voice of the Loy Norrix Community

Knight Life

The Voice of the Loy Norrix Community

Knight Life

The Voice of the Loy Norrix Community

Knight Life

Subscribe to the Newsletter
Ace Hardware
(Photo Illustration) A student drives her car while talking to someone on the phone. This violates Kelsey’s Law which prohibits drivers from using their cell phone while driving.
Scholarship rewards $5,000 to high school students for bringing awareness to distracted teen driving
Sophia Wrzesinski and Flora Harper March 21, 2024

The Kelsey’s Law scholarship is open for submissions until Mar. 31. Hosted by the Michigan Auto Law, the scholarship awards a total of $5,000...

What are Your Spring Break Plans?
What are Your Spring Break Plans?
Isaac Atkinson and Stan Thomas March 21, 2024

Red Cross Supervisor Cindy Vandermeer prepares Teya Dawson for her blood donation. Dawson was a first-time donor.
NHS hosts a successful blood drive, saving lives in and out of the community
Isabella Figueroa, Chief Copy Editor • March 21, 2024

“My dad and my mom both needed blood products when they were still living, so it's just really important to me so that the blood stays local,”...

Open Campus, Open Discussion? Loy Norrix Upperclassmen Should be Entitled to Open Campus Lunch

Guest Writer Will Dales
IMG_0101[1]
You’re three or four years into your high school career, your lunch bell rings, and the underclassmen race through the halls to be first in the lunch line, enthusiasm oozing out of them. You finally make your way into the lunchroom, and the all too familiar scent of school lunch fills the air. Instead of getting a meal like you did your freshman year, or just a drink so you could be somewhat refreshed like your sophomore year, you decide you want to eat out. The only problem is Loy Norrix has a closed campus, and unless you pack a lunch, the only thing offered is school lunch.
“Upperclassmen should have the right to an open campus for lunch,” said Loy Norrix senior Delano Swift. “The bread is just so dry, the taste of off campus food is better, and depending on where you go, the food could be healthier than school lunches.”
The cafeteria is the only place in the school that serves food, and it’s no secret that the majority of students prefer most any fast food place over a school lunch, which is why Loy Norrix should have open campus lunch. The main concerns with open campus lunches are that students leaving the school will not return or be late to their next class, and accidents within the school parking lot could easily happen if every upperclassman is leaving and returning around the same time. Although these are clearly logical concerns, they are both arguments that can be completely deconstructed with reasoning.
“In my opinion,” said freshman academy assistant principal Kelly Hinga, “[The main concern of open campus lunch] would be the safety of students because we can’t control what they’re doing when they leave the campus, and they could miss instructional time.”
Her concern is 100 percent reasonable, but the overall purpose of high school is to prepare us for college. The responsibility we would have to return to school on time would show that we are trusted as the young adults the school is preparing us to be.
The more serious issue Hinga mentioned is the increased chance of accidents that could occur in the parking lot when a bunch of students are lining up to bust out of school and eat their favorite meals. To address this concern, the administration could easily limit the number of people leaving as well as making open campus lunch a reward for good grades and behavior.
First off, this doesn’t have to be an everyday thing. At the beginning of the trimester, students could sign up for one or two days a week that they are allowed to leave school for lunch, which would reduce the risk of an accident in the parking lot. Color coded student IDs could be used to signify which students are entitled to leave on which days. The right to an off campus parking pass could also be bought, which could be used as a fundraiser for the school. Another way to limit the chance of accidents in the parking lot is by reducing the number of cars moving by letting only juniors and seniors leave school for open campus lunch.
After checking out and getting to your car, there would likely be 25 minutes left in your lunch period. Pizza Hut, Subway, and Lee’s Chicken are all within a 25 minute round trip, including the process of ordering, waiting for, and receiving your food. The food would then be eaten in the period following lunch.
Open campus could also be used as a reward. Only students with a 3.0 or better GPA and no issues with behavior in the classroom would be allowed to leave campus for lunch. If their GPA drops below a 3.0 or there is a behavior issue, the administration could suspend their off-campus lunch privileges. All GPAs and behaviors are monitored by eSchool, which students can use to prove they’re allowed to leave school. This not only limits the number of cars driving around in the parking lot at one time, but it encourages good grades and behavior in the classroom.
“Whether it’s allowed or not, there are some students who are going to skip anyway,” Swift claimed. “The question is whether or not you want to punish them or flip it for the positive.”
Open campus is a win-win for the students and administration if used correctly, and it can even be used to increase students’ GPAs, behavior, and ultimately the rate of graduation.
Open campus lunch sounds like a terrible idea right off the bat, but with certain restrictions and proper compliance, it would make a difference in the Kalamazoo Public School district.

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All Knight Life Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Activate Search
The Voice of the Loy Norrix Community
Open Campus, Open Discussion? Loy Norrix Upperclassmen Should be Entitled to Open Campus Lunch