Some high schools in the United States have began allowing off-campus lunch. This means students who can legally drive are allowed to leave school during lunch period to either eat lunch at home or at a restaurant. Unfortunately Washburn Rural does not allow students to leave during lunch. Most schools that are now allowing off-campus lunch only give this opportunity to junior and senior students. I think this is a good rule because most juniors and seniors are more responsible and mature, while also being of legal age to drive.

I think our school should give the option of off-campus lunch, along with a longer lunch period. This would teach students more responsibility and give them interaction on their own. It would also teach time-management skills, as students would need to make it back to class on time. Students would also have many more lunch options. They would be able to eat healthier and save money by eating at home. This would provide more of a break before the rest of the school day. Also, this would limit the amount of students in the lunchroom, which would provide more room for students to eat at school and make lunch lines shorter. Chefs would not have to cook as many meals if students were allowed to eat elsewhere. We would need a longer lunch period since there are not many restaurants very close, but more time would be beneficial even for students who eat at school.

If our school began allowing this, it would not have to be offered to all students. If all students were allowed, this could cause more parking lot traffic during lunch times because of the size of our school. I think it could be allowed for just juniors or just seniors on two seperate days a week. This could be used as a reward, which many high schools do. It would be an extra motivation for students to get good grades, and it could be used as a part of our Renaissance card reward program. If our school did not want to allow this everyday, it could just be offered to Renaissance cardholders or students with a certain GPA a couple times a week. The amount of students leaving would be distributed over the three lunch times. Our school could start out by giving these students off-campus lunch and a longer lunch period on Fridays. If this became a problem, it wouldn’t have to be allowed anymore. But, with parent permission for students who have good grades and behavior, I think it would be worth a try as a new reward for students.