Have you ever wanted to get a breath of fresh air during the school day? Get some food that you’re craving instead of the same options at school everyday? You aren’t alone. So do many other students at Norrix.

Having off campus lunch can be beneficial in many ways. It helps students to be more independent, be more social, make healthier food choices, and during a pandemic, it gives students the option to be more comfortable while eating, by getting off school grounds and eating by themselves.

Senior Brandi-Rose Phiri said, “Yes I think it would benefit my school day because I would be able to eat lunch at a place of my choosing, and I would get the opportunity to have time to myself if I wish in between my two different classes.” 

If students had the ability to change environments during lunch, it would help them to be more inspired and motivated when they come back to class. 

“One thing I think about would be the opportunity to go home if available and eat food at home if the student doesn’t have the money to buy food every day,” said senior Jayda Smith. 

Many students at Norrix skip out on lunch due to their personal opinions on the taste of the food. 

On we no longer have off campus lunch, Principal Christopher Aguinaga said, “It is a safety issue.  Students need to be supervised and can get into car accidents.” Car accidents are the most common argument that is brought up when discussing why students shouldn’t have off campus lunch, the fact that the school would be responsible for the students while they were at lunch if anything were to happen to them. 

This could be very easily solved by having parents/guardians sign a waiver/release form giving their child permission to leave the building and the parents/guardians must take responsibility for their child if they choose to leave the campus for lunch. 

Some other criteria that can be placed to minimize any abuse to having this privilege could be that only juniors and seniors who are passing all of their classes and have parent permission would be allowed to leave campus for lunch. 

“We can implement a form of punishment for those who do not return after lunch and a strict sign in/out sheet,” said Smith. 

There are punishments that can be enforced to avoid students abusing off campus lunch, such as having their privilege taken away after a certain amount of late entries, or making phone calls and giving detentions.

Being able to leave school for lunch would not only benefit students, but the staff as well. Janitors and lunch attendants would have less of a mess to clean up from students eating in the cafeteria. The school would also be able to save money by cutting the costs of providing lunches, since there would be fewer students to serve.