North Platte Public Schools wants you to actually be in the school when you’re in school. That means staying at North Platte High School for lunch and out periods. Superintendent Dr. Ron Hanson discussed closing campus, or not allowing students to leave the school building until the end of the day, at the monthly Student Advisory Committee meeting on November 17. Hanson said the parking lots are dangerous, sophomores and freshmen leave for lunch, and some students are leaving to abuse drugs during their non-school time. Student advisors thought that out periods were a way around taking harder classes. Principal James Ayres said a closed campus would result in shorter lunch periods but more lunches. The students thought that closing the campus would be a difficult transition.

When asked about students abusing drugs during their out periods and lunch, Ayres said “That’s one of the things we have to consider when talking about this. I’m not a fool, I wasn’t born yesterday. Obviously I know there’s kids that leave, and it’s not necessarily alcohol, there’s probably some that do that, but I think it’s more marijuana, pills, or whatever else. They leave campus and do what they do and then they come back. Alcohol is a little different because of the way they behave, but with marijuana and pills, we kind of get tipped off to it. I don’t think it’s any different now than it was 10 years ago.”

Many freshmen and sophomores currently leave for lunch. Freshman Logan Way said that he leaves every day. “There’s no one out there to see who’s leaving. It’s pretty easy just to walk out.” When he was asked what he would do if they started enforcing the rule, so that freshmen and sophomores couldn’t leave, he said, “I would get rather angry and just do it anyway.” Later, when asked what he would do if they closed campus completely, he said, “I would probably protest or boycott the situation.”

In 1998-2002 you would’ve seen student Emily Hasenauer, now a current NPHS math teacher, skipping her lunches. She is against open lunches. She said, “I think that if freshmen and sophomores respected the fact that they would be able to have an open lunch when they were juniors and seniors, and chose not to skip lunch as often as they do, then it wouldn’t be an issue.” However, she said there are positive aspects of open campus, such as, time management, getting a chance to refocus after a break, more lunch options, opportunities to work or job shadow, and we have less congested lunches at school.”

Many people believe that students should have to earn an out periods. Ayres said, “They used to tie honor passes to NeSa test scores, but sometimes students aren’t very good test takers, and just because they didn’t pass the NeSa test doesn’t mean they’re not good students. We kind of look at the students that are on track to graduate, if they have plenty of credits and are going to graduate, other than English 12 and American government, then we give those students honor passes.”

Freshman Drake Berry said, “I personally believe that closed campuses are more safe and that it provides more learning benefits to students and it provides a more streamlined experience for students.”

Ayres said, “You have the ability to come late to class or leave early, if you abuse the honor pass, like you come back tardy or skip classes, the honor pass can be taken away at any time.”