Elijah Johns| Staff writer
While students at NISD have the option to eat lunch off-campus, NEISD remains a closed campus during lunch, even though some students are still pushing that limitation.
“I believe that seniors should be able to go off campus, maybe even juniors. I think since seniors are about to graduate, they should experience lunch how lunch will be for the rest of our lives,” senior Layth Jaber said.
One of the arguments against an open campus policy is the safety concern, since students would be responsible for their own transportation.
“If we [students] are just smart about it and don’t drive recklessly there wouldn’t be an argument. There just has to be a trust between the students and the admins. If there are no opportunities for us to even try out going off campus, how will we know it will work?” Jaber said.
Guthrie went on to say how the idea of an open campus could be beneficial, but would be difficult for such a large campus.
“The benefits would be that kids would have more choices for lunch. We have all been through school cafeterias. Our cafeteria serves great food, I eat it all the time; I think it is wonderful, but I think we all know that variety is the spice of life and people like to try different things. I like to eat different foods when I’m at home at night,” Guthrie said. “And so, from that standpoint, If thought it was safe and it was doable for a campus of 3,000 kids, I would be all for it.”
Many times students don’t anticipate how long a line might be at a restaurant or fast food place. This could lead to kids driving recklessly to try and get back before class starts.
“Every year in the San Antonio area, the surrounding cities, and the small towns somewhere in this area, usually once a year or once every other year you hear about an accident that kids have gotten into when they left campus for lunch,” Guthrie said. “A lot of times these happen at schools with an open campus policy. And the reason I think this happens is when you go to a place like Subway or a place like that and the line is longer than you expect, you get your food late.”
As one of the officers who monitors students leaving campus, Officer Pilar Mireles admits that not every student that leaves during lunch can be checked.
“We have a patrol car right outside the school parking lot; usually it’s me. And the other guy is usually in the golf cart and he sits in the courtyard. Then the administrators are in other areas around the parking lot. We do curb some of it, if students want to leave they can leave. What we can stop is the cars, because we control the access to the gates. But if you look around there are points to leave campus all around us. If you want to walk off campus you will. We battle that every day at Johnson,” Mireles said.
Many students attempt to find ways to leave campus, and different strategies have been implemented to try and stop this from happening.
“They try something different every year. One time we had an administrator and an officer ride around the parking lot in the golf cart. It worked for a little bit and then it kinda just stopped, because the administrators have other things to do or they just didn’t want to do it anymore. But yeah, we try and do different things every year,” Mireles said
Despite the measures that are in place to try and keep students on campus during lunch, many students still break the rules for whatever reason.
“We know who they are. They know that if they get caught they’re going to get in trouble. But in all honesty some just don’t care. Anybody who walks could leave anytime, “ Mireles said.
The reason that a closed campus policy exists, however, is to ensure the safety of all students with the intention of avoiding a potentially life-threatening situation.
“Since I’ve been at Johnson, I’ve always done my best to stop kids from going off campus, just because I don’t want to be in the situation where a kid gets seriously hurt, or worse- a death in the student body,” Guthrie said.
