New rules have been applied to Pasco High School, and sophomores are not happy about it. Last school year, all high school students were allowed to leave the school campus during their lunch break; therefore, students had to be responsible and make sure they made it back to class on time. Due to many irresponsible students, new rules have been created. High schools noticed a significant increase in the number of absences and tardiness after students’ lunch hour. Some students would leave campus during lunch and not come back for the rest of their classes, or would arrive tardy. This led to administrators discussing who they should and should not allow to leave the school campus. High schools are now only allowing junior and senior students to leave campus during their lunch hour. 

They believe 11th and 12th-grade students could possibly be more responsible and follow the expectations, rather than 9th and 10th-grade students. Some freshman students don’t seem to be impacted by this decision due to not being allowed to leave campus in middle school either; therefore, sophomore students are the ones most frustrated with this new rule. 

I interviewed my sophomore friend Ruby Ceja and asked her how she felt about these new expectations,” It’s not fair because we shouldn’t have consequences for other students’ decisions. If other students don’t follow the rules, they should be the only ones not allowed to leave,” Ruby replied. 

I then asked how often she would leave the school campus for lunch last year and how well she followed the expectations. “I left not too often, but I was always following the rules, besides once or twice when I was eating out,” Ruby replied.  

I then interviewed a security staff member to see what his opinion on this was. “I think it’s a bit unfair to both freshman and sophomore kids since last year’s freshman and sophomores got allowed to leave, so I think instead they should’ve started out slow with letting sophomores leave as well and then allowing freshman to leave the next year too,” said Mr. Figueroa. I asked if he felt like it was more or less work to handle the hallways with many more students inside the building during lunch, “I would say it can be more work sometimes since half of the school stays inside the building now, but at the end of the day, we just want kids to come back and follow the rules” he said. I also asked what measures he thinks schools should take instead. “I think there is room for flexibility; they should include student voice in these kinds of decisions that impact them and make students feel heard without having to agree 100%” he replied. 

I interviewed sophomore student Xochitl Espinoza for her opinion on this as well. “It sucks, honestly, because it’s really boring just sitting down in the cafeteria having nothing to do,” Xochitl replied. I asked her if she left campus for lunch last year and if she followed the expectations, to which she said, “Yes, I would leave campus often, but I would do good and always come back on time to my classes.” Since she followed the expectations well, I asked her what she believes the school could do instead to make this rule fair. “I think that they should only allow students who have at least a  2.00 GPA to leave, that way students keep their grades up and can be allowed to leave during lunch,” Xochitl replied. Some other sophomores I interviewed stated that they didn’t mind not being allowed to leave, but overall, many students believe this isn’t a fair rule.