“Violence is never the answer” is the ancient saying that our moms relayed to us after our first playground scuffle. As you grow older and more mature from that elementary altercation, a lot of you and many others go the rest of your scholastic career without any more fights, especially in an age where people’s thumbs swing harder than their fists.

   Our school allows its junior and senior students to travel off campus for lunch (although plenty of underclassmen manage to leave school grounds with no problem). This is beneficial for everybody. Students get the chance to decompress away from what they consider hell on earth, teacher’s don’t have to put up with adolescents who’ve been confined to a chair for the last three and a half hours, and local businesses collect a ton of money from dozens of hungry students. However, what happens when a portion of high schoolers who never matured beyond that “bike racks, after school” phase, ruin that privilege for everyone?

   In the returning four-day school week following spring break, two fights that were significant enough to warrant an email from admin took place during the 50-minute lunch period. The average parent may be concerned after receiving emails regarding a brawl outside of Weis, and a fight involving three more students near the school’s entrance just the day after. 

   Administrators have already threatened to strip the privilege of off-campus lunch away due to numerous reports of shoplifting and… fighting… taking place in Ridgeview Center. The chances of this happening are slim, as our small and pathetically frail building simply cannot handle 1,300 stimulated students rampaging through the halls, but if the students continue to rack up reports from rightfully irate business owners, admin will be left with no other choice but to keep everyone in the building during lunch.

   I personally cherish the 45 minutes away from school, as listening to 70s hits in the solitude of my vacant car while eating half a pound of strawberries has become therapeutic to me. Myself, along with dozens of other students, will be devastated if we can no longer have this period of free range. 

    Students constantly praise the need for mental health activities, days and other implementations of that nature, yet are absentmindedly misusing one of the best opportunities to aid their mental health throughout the school day. I’m not saying everyone needs to isolate themselves from the rest of society in their 13-year-old Honda Insight, but if students could simply refrain from fighting, juvenile shoplifting and recreational drug use across the street from school, we can continue to practice independence and freedom by eating lunch off-campus.