Harwood Union High School currently has a closed campus. But attending juniors and seniors feel that they deserve the freedom of an open campus.
Approximately 37% of high schools in the U.S. already give the privilege of an open campus. These schools believe having an open campus promotes responsibility and time managment among the students. These schools also often require a certain grade point the students have to meet to receive this privilege which then encourages the students to get good grades.
Harwood Union High School should join the 37% of high schools with open campus because juniors and seniors currently don’t have many opportunities at Harwood that promote great responsibility, there are many students that would feel more comfortable eating lunch elsewhere rather than the lunch room, and it would influence students to keep their grades up so that they could keep the privilege.
Commonground interviewed Grace Milia, a junior at Harwood , on her thoughts on an open campus.
Grace believes open campus would promote better mental health because some kids don’t feel that they have a place in the lunch room. “Harwood has a lot of kids that don’t feel like they have a place in the lunch room so they could go to their car and feel more comfortable and not have to deal with the anxiety of going into the lunch room.”
Many students at Harwood don’t like their lunch block because of many factors such as not having friends in their lunch block, not feeling comfortable eating in the lunch room or not having a place to sit. With so many students and so few staff supervising, bullying can occur. It is a school’s responsibility to make sure all of its students feel comfortable, and currently, that is not happening at Harwood.
Commonground asked “If Harwood allowed off campus privileges, do you think students would take advantage of this privilege?”
“Honestly yes, I think a small majority of kids would, but I think it should be seen as a privilege not a right so if a kid is taking advantage of it they should get punished and get the privilege taken” said Milia.
If a student shows that they can’t handle the responsibility of this privilege, then it should be revoked. If off campus privileges were implemented into Harwood, the majority of students would follow the rules because it would be emphasized that it is a privilege and not a right. Students would not want their privilege revoked.
“What do you think some cons of having this privilege would be?”asked Commonground.
“ I think some kids would not get back on time and be late to class or they might leave when they’re not supposed to but I think there are way more pros to it than cons so I definitely think it is worth it,” Milia replied.
Students at Harwood Union High School strongly believe that they deserve the privilege of an open campus.
