Alicia Lourekas ’12
Opinions Editor
It’s 10:45 on a Monday morning. A student is sitting in class waiting for the bell to ring for lunch, and they start craving a juicy, delicious Five Guys burger. They decide to leave school to go buy one.
However, Staples is a closed campus, meaning no one may leave during the day.
Although Staples is considered a closed campus during the day, students have managed to find their own way around this rule, whether it’s trying to cover up what period they actually have free, just driving past the security guard without stopping, or even using doctor’s notes to get out of school.
“10:45 is the golden hour for doctor’s appointments,” Patty McQuone, Attendance Secretary, said.
Although administrators and security alike realize that leaving campus during the middle the day is against the rules, they’re also aware that they cannot stop all of the students.
“I see students leaving all the time. We can’t catch every kid, but we try to catch as many as we can,” Principal Dodig said.
Some students said that this translates in some minds as “I can leave and won’t get caught.” Because of this, a number of students decide to take off for lunch or at the end of the day.
“I go to get food,” said a senior girl. Her friend added that there are times during the day when no guard is present.
In agreement are many junior or seniors with cars, who say they would rather be driving around town than sitting in English class learning about Shakespeare. Although most kids obey the closed campus rule, others take it further than just leaving at lunchtime.
“I leave every day; it depends on what class I have, especially extended frees,” an anonymous senior said. Many students also take advantage of this rule to leave for food. Some of the most popular places include Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks for breakfast and the Sherwood Diner and Five Guys for lunch.
“I leave during my classes that I don’t like, so all of them, and most of the time go to the diner or home,” said a senior. Students’ comments may suggest that the rules aren’t strictly followed, but administrators disagreed.
“We follow the rules precisely; students can’t be streaming in and out through the day,” Dodig said.
The rules are to protect Staples’ students. Administrators don’t make rules against students without reason, Dodig said.
“It’s important to keep our students safe. Imagine it’s in the middle of November and a senior goes out for a bagel at the diner. They realize that they only have five minutes to get back to class. The student rushes back to school and gets in an accident because they were driving too fast,” Dodig said. To keep everybody safe, rules exist, Dodig continued.
Sometimes, McQuone said she makes random calls to parents concerning students doctor notes to catch fake notes. Once she called a doctor’s office for verification of a note. The office was closed.
Staples Security Guard Robert Herrman said he’s at a loss sometimes to catch every attendance offender.
“I try to get as many as I can,” Herrman explained. “Naturally, it’s not 100 percent because some of them don’t stop.” McQuone agreed, “It’s hard to catch people that drive right by: some are faster than others.” Herrman said he logs license plate numbers that can be checked out later.
On the opposite end of the spectrum there are students who do in fact follow the closed campus rule.
“I would leave if it wasn’t a rule, but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal to wait for school to be over to leave,” Cal Rider ’11 said.
Others kids also agree with the fact that it’s a closed campus and decide against leaving during the day, although most agreed they would leave if it was allowed.
“I don’t leave school, because I have no reason to. But I would if it was an open- campus,” Gwen Moyer ’11 said.
