The lunches at schools often times do not give a variety of options.  A lot of students would like to be able to go out and eat somewhere else. Senior student Esme Hernandez said, “I honestly think seniors should go out because I feel like they should have earned that freedom to go out, and sometimes lunch is [unappealing], and they want something else.” 

Some Benefits

Seniors should be able to go out of school for lunch because it gives them a break, responsibility, and a little more freedom. As soon as they become adults, they will have to do a lot for themselves, so they should be treated like the adults they’re about to become.  

Allowing students to leave school will teach them how to handle responsibility better. It will give them better time management skills because they would have to plan how much time it would take to eat. If Seniors fail to get back to school on time three times, they could lose the privilege and not go out anymore.

Schools stress students, and sometimes they need to get away for a while. Leaving the school during lunch would help students relax and temporarily forget about the stress school brings them. Getting away will also give students the energy to tackle the rest of the day. Students that stay at school will also get more room in the cafeteria because it would be less crowded. 

Possible Requirements 

To go out and eat for lunch, the students must go to the office and sign a permission slip, and then when they come back, they must sign back in. If a student has had ISS, they will lose the privilege to temporarily or permanently leave if ISS is a recurring thing.

 “12th graders should be able to go off-campus, as long as they have a car, and they have a driver’s license, they should be allowed to go off-campus and have lunch, and obviously come back on time,” says college counselor Christle Nwole. She believes that seniors have worked hard throughout all four years and have earned the privilege to be able to go out. 

Would we be the only ones?

In Spring Branch [SBISD], some schools allow their students to leave campus. Stratford high school, Memorial high school, and Spring Woods high school are part of that. They let their students go out during lunch before covid; some of these rules got altered, but students were still allowed to leave. 

“It’s not fair they can go outside to eat, and we can’t,” says Yes Prep senior student David Avila.