Open campus lunch has been talked about many times. Many students may not realize, but about 20 years ago juniors and seniors were allowed to go out to lunch.

Why did things change?  With many juniors becoming upperclassmen, they should be able to have more responsibilities. Junior year is the age you can start to drive. Our school should introduce an open campus lunch for seniors and juniors with full driver licences. 

According to Assistant Principal Mr. Bookamer, the main reason juniors do not go out to lunch anymore is safety. He said, “Most juniors do not have a full class D license until later in the year and those that do, are not able to park in the main school parking lot.”  

Due to this, he explained that cars became overcrowded.  “Juniors leaving for lunch and not having a class D license many were piling into Seniors’ cars.  Statistics show that cars with more teenagers in them are less safe than cars with fewer teenagers in them.”

Still, students feel it should be reconsidered. Junior Amia Hughes said, “There’s too many ppl in the lunchroom and most juniors can drive already.”

Another junior, Scarlett Doyle agreed. “People are leaving already, it is better to give juniors that privilege as upperclassmen rather than have kids unaccounted for because they are sneaking out.”

An open campus lunch can give juniors in our schools many opportunities to become more independent and organized in schools and freedom.