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The bell rings, signaling B-Lunch. One minute later, students line up in single files either in the cafeteria or the Eagle’s Nest, impatiently waiting for their turn to buy lunch. Some students standing in line suddenly transform into food critics, while others sneak out to the local fast food and smuggle their sandwiches back into school. Does this suggest that the school should change its policy and allow off-campus lunch, bestowing on its students a right to greater liberty and freedom, something student desperately need? No.
Implementing off-campus lunch into the school day would be an unreasonable decision, creating more problems than solutions, and promoting further social stratification of the student body.
Off-campus lunch gives students a greater opportunity to skip school, leaving school during lunch without returning, something many students are already tempted to do.
Some students who actually return might be late to class, increasing tardies, which in turn would create much more detentions, OSCARS and Saturday school’s than there already exist. There is also the problem of driving to and from the desired destination.
As students make their way to a restaurant, the trip can be dangerous. Accidents occurring on the road would be considered to occur during the school day, and the school might be partially blamed.
Similarly, the possibility that students might cause trouble at these restaurants is also quite problematic for the school administration. Fights can erupt at these public places, and outside the school, these students represent RHS and its culture, linking the fights to the school itself.
With students randomly walking into and out of the school, the administration has the right to be concerned about one more thing- controlling the flow of people into and out of the school. Too many people entering at the same time can be chaotic, and it leaves room from outsiders to sneak into the school. As evident by this year’s national and local tragic events, exposing the school to a potential intruder is surely a risk the school wouldn’t and shouldn’t take.
Moreover, students’ main reason for having off-campus lunch is the supposedly unsatisfactory food the school offers. Students supporting an off-campus lunch would argue that the food offered in school does not meet their needs, taste or nutritional preferences.
Well, if students were to leave school, buy lunch and come back, they would most likely go to the nearest fast food restaurant like a McDonald’s or a Chik-fil-A, as I’ve seen students regularly do illegally.
Coincidentally, the school already serves fast foods like pizza and Chik-fil-A chicken sandwiches in what is called the Eagle’s Nest. So, as much as it is unfortunate that students have to suffer whenever the school’s lunch does not meet their standards, it is simply unreasonable to have off-campus lunch just so students can buy the same food the school offers from local restaurants at higher prices.
Finally and most importantly, having off-campus lunch would just highlight the social stratification that already exists to some degree in school. Those who would benefit most from an off-campus lunch are students who have cars and view school food as inferior to them. In principle, schools are supposed to adopt equity of treatment policies. For example, the school extended library hours so that students without Internet access at home can complete projects and assignments that require online access.
Integrating off-campus lunch would be inconsistent with policies that promote equality. Students who can’t drive to restaurants or simply cannot afford eating outside every day would be alienated from other students who can. As a result, social lines between students would be emphasized, causing greater division in the student body.
An effort to implement off-campus lunch would simply be time misused. An off-campus lunch would solve issues of no real importance whatsoever, while creating more serious problems for both the school and student body.