<p>We recently had a tragedy at one of our local high schools that has an open campus for lunch (kids can leave campus for lunch, and one day per week it is a one hour lunch)…I don’t want to get too specific out of respect to the victim’s memory and his family…
but during hour lunch a student who was walking along the street returning to campus was struck and fatally injured by another student who was also returning to campus in his vehicle.
It is a horrible tragedy for all of us and a great loss…and so we try to “make sense” out of it…
I really don’t want to discuss the accident details beyond what I’ve already said…
my main interest here is to find out if this open campus is common, and if so what are problems/solutions others have found. Could the school possibly have some legal liability in the case of the accident mentioned above?
I have noted in general way too much reckless driving around both local highschools, regardless if campus is open or closed…and a lack of police presence and enforcement of traffic rules doesn’t help.</p>
<p>Our hs has never had an open campus policy for lunch, although upperclassmen with free first or last periods may either arrive late or leave early. However, a small, semi-rural school system in our county had an open campus policy until a tragedy similar to the one mentioned above occurred a few years ago. Four students were racing to get back to school on time after lunch and hit a tree. Three girls were killed and the young man who was driving was terribly injured. Of course, the policy was changed - to very little protest, if any.</p>
<p>I can imagine an open campus for lunch might work well in an urban school with coffee shops and fast food restaurants within walking distance. Otherwise, it simply puts students who must drive at risk.</p>
<p>My high school had an open campus (I graduated in 1973). Our school was overcrowded, and we were located a few blocks from the center of our town, which was the major shopping district for our whole area (before malls and highway stores were so common.) So we could leave the school and walk to town between classes. I don’t remember a lot of leaving the school in cars between classes though. My kids’ high school, which was not within walking distance of anything, was totally “closed” even for seniors.</p>
<p>hmmm- food for thought here. The hour lunch is of course beloved by students, but this may be the time to give it up, and given recent events perhaps there would be little resistance.</p>
<p>wecantothis:</p>
<p>a similar thing happened in a neighboring town a few years ago – kid waslate back from lunch and was speeding, lost control, jumped the curb and hit another student walking back. I don’t recall any finding of fault or liability on the part of the school district, however.</p>
<p>My daughter’s high school had this policy–for seniors only. To my knowledge, there were never problems. That said, I thought there was plenty of “reckless driving” before and after school hours–not just by the students, but by many of the parents, too, who were often in a huge rush. I found the parents much more frightening–as drivers–than the students. Enough people complained that they did put a policeman out there for a while to sort of direct traffic, in the mornings and afternoons. Not sure how long it lasted, but just the visual presence of a policeman seemed to work; again, though, they didn’t keep him there forever, so things returned to “normal” after he left. I always thought it was a miracle no one was ever hurt (or killed).</p>
<p>our local high school has an open campus – the high school is a block from the downtown business district (small downtown) and the kids are frequently seen in the park across the street and on the sidewalks leading to the many restaurants. I believe it is open for all grades, 9th – 12th.</p>
<p>“I can imagine an open campus for lunch might work well in an urban school with coffee shops and fast food restaurants within walking distance.” This would exactly describe our school. I am actually not sure if kids are allowed to drive anywhere – every kid I know walks.</p>
<p>Students may leave campus during lunch if their parents sign a permission form (basically a release of liability for the school). Such students have a sticker placed on their Student ID card. However, administrators can’t and don’t check about 1000 students when they do leave. Lunch is only 1/2 hour (40 minutes when adding the 5 minute passing periods prior to and after the scheduled lunch time). Fast food joints are just up the street, some student homes are close by, but you can image the speeds that students have to travel in order to make it back to class. Fortunately, so far, no major accidents - just fender benders and arguments over who’s parked in “their” space when they return. Admin is actively working on improving the dining experience at school (better food, more choices, fast food type snack bars run by students) to entice students to stay.</p>
<p>maybe a “seniors only” policy would help cut down on pedestrians competing for space with the drivers in the rush to return to school…the pedestrians are the lower classmen and the drivers are mostly seniors and some juniors…</p>
<p>btw, where we live EVERYONE drives too fast, but the consequences are far worse for the teen drivers, as they are inexperienced; but they learn to drive too fast from the other (adult) drivers who set a poor example…mt d says she is “going with the flow of traffic” when she is going 80 on the freeway! and it is true! but she forgets that she doesn’t have the driving experience to handle it…</p>
<p>good point about improving the dining to entice students to stay…a good proactive approach</p>
<p>bummmppiinng</p>
<p>both my kids high schools have off campus lunch- the private school didn’t really have a cafeteria, although they have since expanded their lunch program, there are also other offerings than when D went there.( they also didn’t have an hour for lunch- I don’t think anyone does except maybe schools that have short courses during lunch)</p>
<p>I do believe that 9th graders weren’t allowed off campus for lunch ( and for a time the school was banned from attending a certain fast food place because of student behavior)</p>
<p>My younger D also has off campus lunch, and in fact now that her school is relocated while the building is rebuilt, she misses the places they used to go quite a bit- so I am going to run over there today 
[Chicken</a>!](<a href=“http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=ezells03m&date=20070203]Chicken”>http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=ezells03m&date=20070203)</p>
<p>My kids have a closed school campus. My old high school, located in a small city, has always had an open campus for lunch. I recently read this is going to change within a couple of years. They are doing some major school renovations, and the cafeteria will be enlarged to accommodate the number of students who attend the school.</p>
<p>In our school system, the policies vary by high school.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s school, there is open lunch for everyone except first-semester freshmen. Students with cars can use them.</p>
<p>At the high school my son attended, in the same system, open lunch was restricted to juniors and seniors, and students were not allowed to leave campus in cars – only on foot. There were two shopping centers, with multiple fast-food places, within easy walking distance of the school.</p>
<p>I like the second arrangement better.</p>
<p>I should note that in places that have open lunch, the cafeteria facilities are often inadequate to serve the entire school population. This is certainly true in our schools.</p>
<p>My private high school had open campus lunches for seniors who aren’t on academic probation. Students are required to sign out/in, and parents need to give approval for going off campus. Students were limited to a certain area in the nearest village, which was a five minute drive away. All lunch periods at my school were one hour, and my school did not provide food for students. </p>
<p>Perhaps schools (maybe only private schools would be able to do this, I’m not sure) should restrict these driving privileges to students in good standing who have been driving for at least six months and have had no moving violations in the past six months, or something like that. Schools could also consider banning passengers from cars, though that would mean more cars on the streets.</p>
<p>I think an open campus is an advantage of an urban school.
I attended a public school in the suburbs-
( incidentally- when I did a search for the school to see if I could find a picture of the rolling terraces outside the cafeteria I found [this](<a href=“Petition Online - Petition Online has been retired”>Petition Online - Petition Online has been retired))</p>
<p>When I attended we had open campus- there wasn’t really anyplace to eat unless you had a car- and even if you had access to one , it was a rush to get your lunch and get back- I also admit that the cafeteria was also very slow, and if you had lunch there, you would spend the entire time in line.</p>
<p>I didn’t have a car, so I was dependent on friends, but they were all good drivers- even the boys, they knew a ticket would be the end of their driving privileges. ( there was also often a cop who would sit outside the school at lunch)</p>
<p>Both my Ds could walk to lunch places & while I agree that schools could improve both the space and the offerings, I also think that it is nice for the students to be able to get off campus for a few minutes- I always find that when I have time to do that at work, it makes a huge difference in the rest of my day.</p>
<p>My school has an open campus for lunch only for seniors with cars…but the way the school is handling the lunch hour is getting crazy!</p>
<p>2 years ago, we had an hour lunch, last year we had a 50 minute lunch, now there’s only 40 minutes…so it’s a rush to get back, which makes it 3x more dangerous in my opinion. Also, as of this week, we aren’t allowed inside the main building (where the library and classrooms are) after the first 15 minutes of lunch…so all 4000 kids have to wait outside until class starts…really dumb.</p>
<p>I don’t get it. Are traffic accidents involving kids driving to school somehow less tragic when they occur with kids rushing to meet the 8 am bell than during the lunch hour?</p>
<p>The HS my kids went to has a closed campus and the one I went to had an open campus. I don’t think a closed campus lunch hour really solves this issue since the kids could have the same problems before or after school although there would be some ‘reduction of opportunity’ for things to go awry. That speeding student most likely speeds and drives recklessly almost every day on their way to and from school as well. Anybody who drops off or picks up their kid at HS has seen it daily. </p>
<p>I agree with the poster who mentioned that parents are often the ones who drive irresponsibly when transporting their kids. They park in the middle of the road, stop so their kids must cross in front of traffic to make it easier for mom to keep going, pull out into traffic without looking first, do U-turns where they shouldn’t, sit in right turn lanes waiting for their kid to show up despite the traffic behind them wanting to turn right, completely block lanes, etc. etc. I’m trouncing on the parents because the street outside of my workplace is the designated drop-off point for a HS and it’s frustrating to no end.</p>
<p>Regarding school liability - IMO the school should only be liable for what’s happening on-campus. If a student chooses to head off-campus during the lunch hour they should be on their own once their feet leave the campus. I don’t know what the actual legal position is on this.</p>
<p>Speaking of suing the school . . . there was an interesting case in our school district recently, where this couple left school (with permission) for some kind of off-campus event during lunch. The event was cancelled, so instead of going back to school, they decided to go to her house and have sex. So they were discovered (a whole other story there, I’m sure), and he was ultimately suspended from school. Not sure why she wasn’t, too, but the mother was so upset–not by the sex, but by the school suspension–that she encouraged him to sue the school, or maybe the whole family is suing the school. The school spokesman said that having sex during school hours breaks the rules – even in a private home. “Wherever you are during school hours–it’s a privilege to leave campus for lunch, and you sign a form to that effect, as do your parents . . . so it was with full consent and knowledge that they participate under these rules, and if they choose to break them, then disciplinary action will come into play.” Restrictions there say students are on school time, whether at lunch or not. The kid and his parents say this is unconstitutional, and the kid says that he had no idea that private, consensual, off-campus sexual activity could subject him to school suspension. ;)<br>
<a href=“http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=local&id=4154105[/url]”>http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=local&id=4154105</a></p>