Every day it seems the parking lot fills up more and more as new drivers get their licenses. Every day students drive to school, drive to Ben Barber and drive back home. Every day students violate rules and drive to go get food. Driving is a part of everyday activities in MISD, and students should be allowed to leave campus for lunch without fear of reprisal.
The district sets a double standard by allowing students to drive to and from school and to Ben Barber, but not allowing them to drive to lunch. The district cannot have it both ways where student’s safety is their own responsibility some of the time, and then use the opposite logic for why we have closed campuses. Students are just as likely, or more so, to have a deadly car accident while driving to or from school or between campus as they are when driving to Chick-fil-a or Wendy’s. Whether the district acknowledges it or not, students’ safety on the road is their own responsibility, and should be treated as such.
If the district insists on maintaining their inconsistency in rule enforcement philosophy, they can allow students over the age of 18 to sign a waiver for themselves, and let younger student-drivers have the option of letting their parents sign one for them. Anyone without a waiver would fall under the current closed campus rule. This solution would allow students with permission to have off-campus lunch, while protecting MISD from any potential lawsuits.
District administrators should either allow a completely open campus, or let students or their parents sign waivers for a limited open-campus option.