Many upperclassmen at Raleigh Charter want off-campus lunch passes, but should the school introduce them? While the idea may be popular among students and present at other schools, would they work well at Raleigh Charter?
Off-campus lunch passes have pros and cons. They can offer students more freedom and independence, as well as teaching responsibility and time management skills. This comes with costs as well, though: nutrition tends to be worse according to PubMed, it can encourage truancy; and according to a study from UNC Chapel Hill, car accident rates are higher.
So, first let’s talk about the good. Off-campus lunch passes teach students to manage their time better. Students must figure out where to eat, get there, order, eat, and get back to school all within their lunch period. It also encourages independence in students. Going to eat by themselves encourages them to learn to handle all sorts of different situations on their own.
Off-campus lunch passes can also support the local community. Businesses see more customers during lunch around schools with off-campus lunch passes, benefiting them. This, in turn, can come back to benefit the school as well, as it may incentivize local businesses to want to donate to the school. They can also allow students to help out at home if necessary.
Let’s get some opinions from others, though. First, I interviewed my friend Ben Kopanic, a student at Athens Drive High School, who does have an off-campus lunch pass and regularly goes to lunch off campus. He said that his experience with off-campus eating has been “Great!”
He told me that he thinks that “off-campus lunch is a good opportunity for students to get some fresh air,” and it makes him feel “less trapped at school.”
When asked about what he thinks should determine if a student can qualify for an off-campus lunch pass, he said, “it’s not the grades that matter if a student can go off-campus or not, but about the number of absences and tardies a student gets. If you’re regularly getting tardies and absences, you shouldn’t be going off campus because you’re literally missing class.”
What do our fellow Raleigh Charter students have to say about this, though? Krish Ananthakrishnan, a senior at Raleigh Charter, believes that we do not have off-campus lunch passes currently because “They would be too difficult to supervise.” Despite this, he does believe that they would benefit the school, as there are “many good food spots in the area.”
The Village District is only a five-minute drive away and contains almost 20 restaurants, including Chick-fil-A, Moe’s, Starbucks, and more.
Ananthakrishnan also acknowledged potential consequences. He believes that “some potential consequences are traffic and accidents happening, people getting left out, and people skipping classes or being late.”
Despite these consequences, Ananthakrishnan said that he would want them to be offered, as there are benefits for the school and students, such as “more food options, and the school wouldn’t have to pay as much to order food.
Let’s get information from a leader at school, though. Here are Mr. Setubal’s opinions, as an administrator at Raleigh Charter, on off-campus lunch passes. He says the reason that we do not have off-campus lunch passes currently is because “the risks do not justify the rewards.”
He explained that the main reason we don’t have off-campus lunch passes now is because “parents entrust the school with their children’s safety,” and because introducing off-campus lunch passes introduces risks of “accidents and inappropriate behavior.”
