The Wilde Lake village center bustles with familiar shops and restaurants for people to visit. Unfortunately, the students of Wilde Lake are confined to a cramped lunch period in the cafeteria, unable to visit the village center during their lunch time.

Over the four years that I have been in high school, the administration has focused on reinforcing that students cannot leave the school building during lunch periods. According to the Howard County student handbook, students will face disciplinary action if they leave school grounds during school hours without written or verbal permission from a parent or guardian.

In reality, students constantly leave campus and walk to restaurants such as Pizza Bolis and Bagel Bin. Students caught returning to school after leaving can face punishment, such as classroom removal, administrative responses, and food confiscation.

I understand why this policy exists. Giving students the freedom to leave school grounds could set the stage for a fight without any administration nearby. Furthermore, students could participate in drug use because they would be roaming the village center unmonitored. With an open campus, which is defined as allowing students to leave campus during school hours, you can’t be sure students who have left are behaving while unsupervised, and it is hard to decide who will take the blame if a student off of school grounds gets in trouble.

However, the students who cause trouble in the village center usually leave school during lunch regardless of the policy or tend to go to the village center after school hours. Therefore, this policy mainly affects students who would behave without adult supervision in the village center if they were granted permission to leave the school. This policy doesn’t do what it sets out to, and in the end, everyone suffers. The administration and school board need to see that an open campus is not bad.

With an open campus, students are offered the chance to learn and grow. Allowing students to leave campus and return on time teaches them time management, responsibility, and independence, which are all life skills these students will need after high school.

Once we leave high school, many students will pursue higher education or careers. If students can’t be trusted to leave school and walk a few minutes to a restaurant and back, how can they live and look after themselves, or transport themselves to and from places? An open campus gives students a mirror of what their life may very soon look like. High school students are told to behave as adults yet are not given the freedom of adults.
The students leaving the school building wouldn’t be the only ones to benefit from an open campus. We have three lunch periods, while many other Howard County schools have four. Our lunches are overcrowded and students struggle to find a place to sit and eat peacefully. If students are allowed to go to the village center, those who choose to stay at school will have more space to eat and socialize without suffering in a stuffy, overcrowded lunchroom.

Finally, allowing students to leave school grounds would help local businesses thrive. If students bought their lunch from local stores like Bagel Bin and Pizza Bolis, those businesses would benefit from the extra revenue that they are not currently receiving because students aren’t allowed to leave the school building.

If not for all students, open campus during lunch periods should at least be allowed for high school seniors. Many of us seniors are 18 and want to be treated like the adults that we are. As adults, we have to be able to manage our time and make our own choices, which having an open campus would allow us to do.
Yes, there are risks to having an open campus, but there are more benefits. Open campuses offer a controlled environment for students to prepare themselves for their futures.

The current policy doesn’t work because students will break the rules anyway. Instead, we can change the policy so students don’t have to break the rules and can instead learn necessary life skills during their lunch time.