From 11 am to 1:05 pm the first and second lunches are held. Students rush to their cars, or seats in the cafeteria, and the commons, to have enough time to eat.

The halls are crowded with freshmen held in from leaving campus. The restrictions on the freshmen are causing a debate on whether freshmen should be able to leave campus or not. “We think that it is a good rule that the students are not able to leave,” Says, concerned parents “their safety is what matters and the maturity of the students is not to its fullest”. The parents are concerned that the maturity and actions of the freshmen are unpredictable and could result in injuries and/or bad decisions.

Santiago’s is the closest restaurant to the school. The road that you have to cross to get to Santiago’s is normally busy with people trying to get out of the parking lot or cars going down Tipple getting to Colorado boulevard or the frontage road. There is a lot of chaos in that area during times when students are out of class for lunch, before, and after school.

The freshmen don’t see a problem with crossing the road or walking to Santiago’s. “Now that we are in high school, we should be able to have some freedom and be able to walk across the street to Santiago’s just like the Sophomores and Juniors” said freshman Madison Schaffer.

As a freshman, I think that the road walking to the restaurant is not that dangerous. Many people like their parents are afraid of kids getting hit, not only that but the time getting back to school in time. Many teachers and parents are afraid of their kid’s ditching or just being tardy in general. “Though it takes time to get there, it teaches us some time management, such as knowing what time to leave, what time to walk back, and what time we should be back to the school,” Amelia Hughes says. It does teach how to manage time which could be very helpful in the future. However, the time that it takes to get there is hard. The students leave right when the bell rings and start to walk over to Santiago’s, then as soon as they get there they have to fight to get a good place in line. Most students are already at Santiago’s and because more kids are coming into the small area it takes a lot of time to get into the restaurant, order, leave, and walk back to the school in time.

“I think it’s a good idea for freshmen to practice going to class on time before they are allowed to leave campus”, a teacher at Frederick states, “Practice makes perfect”. Even though it is better to have students learn how to practice time management, we are now in high school, so we have to be able to make decisions that we can be able to manage. For example, if we choose to go off campus, we must be able to know what time lunch ends and how much time it will take to get our food, walk back and be at the school on time. If we cannot get our food in the time we will end up being late and getting in trouble because we made the choice.

Nevertheless, we should be able to learn, practice, and know how to manage our schedule, time, and business for the rest of our lives. But what is the real reason students want to leave? Freedom. “We like the idea of being able to leave (freedom) but also for straightforward reasons, like wanting to eat fast food versus cafeteria/their food.” Yes, the idea of leaving to the restaurant is exciting because, in 8th grade, we were not able to leave at all, so the freedom is nice. Also, since Santiago’s is the closes fast food place, everyone wants to go there because there is no Mcdonald’s, Wendy’s, TacoBell, etc. Because students are not able to drive yet they also try and get rides from upperclassmen. “Students will be safer if they stay on campus compared to if they leave and are walking or getting rides from upperclassmen who are still new drivers (plus there are Colorado laws that during the first year of having a license, you can’t have more than 1 person in your car)” says another teacher. Yes, seniors shouldn’t be taking younger students to lunch because of the safety laws, but students will be going at their own risk. If students get in an accident, they should have known that it was a possibility before they got into the car. It is a risk to get a ride, walk or just leave campus altogether but students should know the risks before they go off campus.