Let’s see. What to have for lunch today? Panera, Subway, Micky D’s, Dominos, or Einstein’s? All good choices, all off campus, and therefore all off limits.
It has just been announced that a Boardwalk Fries is going in where Village Chicken used to be. Awesome! Oh wait, that’s off campus too.
Some high schools in the United States have an open campus policy for lunch, that is to say, students are allowed to go outside of the school cafeteria and beyond their lunch boxes to get food.
However all FCPS campuses are closed; or are they?
You probably know other Spartans who defy this rule, hop in their cars, and run to Panera to grab lunch; you might even do it yourself once in a while.
WS was originally built to be an open campus: a fact easily noticed in our numerous courtyards sprinkled throughout the schools and our ability to exit the school from both levels.
However, we are unable to make use of this because allowing students to leave school grounds runs a great risk.
Say, for instance, we had an open campus and a Spartan got in a car accident driving to McDonald’s for lunch. Who would take the heat? Who would get sued by the angry parents? WS.
Closing the campus saves FCPS a great amount of pain and work, for if a student gets hurt as he or she ventures illegally off campus, the school is not responsible.
Thus the open campus dream has died – at least officially. What is puzzling about this not-so-secret secret is how students get away with it.
For those of you with classes that overlook the senior parking lot, you can see Mr. Ukele driving his golf cart and foiling the plans of would-be-skippers.
Of course, there are times when there isn’t a member of the security staff out in the parking lot, but students still walk around school with their large Coke from McDonald’s – a red flag that they might have snuck out.
Granted, some students have parents or older siblings who bring them lunch from the outside world (which provides a great excuse for those who slip out), however this fact doesn’t rule out the possibility that many Spartans visit the restaurants in the surrounding area for lunch despite the close campus policy.
Let us once again turn to the question of how you do it, you who are able to sneak in and out without being caught.
It’s got some of us completely flummoxed; we’re supposed to have a closed campus, but that doesn’t stop a sizeable amount of students (mainly upper classmen) from taking themselves out to lunch.
But maybe the closed campus policy might not be strongly enforced deliberately. It may well be one of those “don’t ask, don’t tell” rules in life where we’re allowed to go off campus as long as we don’t make a big deal out of it.
Sure, the staff will still stop students from going off campus, but they might not be as strict as they could be.
Despite the ability of our fellow Spartans to pretend WS has an open campus policy for lunch, let us stick with out our PB&J.
Not nearly as exciting, but ultimately safer.
