“I don’t think that it makes sense for us to have to pay to leave school,” said Maggie Mianecke (11).  For students, lunch can be the best part of their day. It is the time where they go and see all the friends that they do not necessarily get to see often because of the busy high school schedule. It is a time where no student should have to think about having money for a parking and lunch pass in order to leave. It is not fair to the students of Portage Northern to have to pay for passes in order to leave school. As a school  Portage Northern needs to find a policy that bests suits the students not themselves. It is time for a change in policy.

It is absurd that students have to pay twenty dollars just to park their cars, then an additional five dollars just for a pass. To make matters worse, students have to pay five dollars per marking period for that pass to leave.  With the parking pass and the lunch passes to leave the grand total to is $40 That price is outrageous for just going out to lunch.

“It benefits the school not having to seat us,” said Megan Main (11).The truth behind lunch  passes are  that they benefit the school, not the students.

“They benefit from having a lot less chaos in the cafeteria,” said Mianecke. If students are helping the school run well, then why do they have to pay?  There are already students sitting on the floor in the cafeteria so just imagine how many students there would be if none of them chose to go out. The fact that the school chooses to charge students to leave but do not have enough seats in cafeteria for them to stay is mindblowing. It is a win-win situation for the school by putting a price on the students’ freedom to leave.

Of course, some students believe that charging students to leave for lunch is fair.

“I think that the lunch pass is pretty reasonable,” said Isla Wilger (11). But no student wants to pay just so that that can leave for half an hour a day for lunch.It is not fair to make students pay when tax dollars are spent to make sure students have a place to park.

“Some aspects are fair and some are not.They say we start the year with a clean slate, but we don’t,” Said Val White (11), regarding the rules to leave school. On top of paying for passes, there is also a large list of rules that students have to follow. Rules include that there must be  a note of written permission from a parent/guardian, have no outstanding fees or fines, etc.  First the payments and then the huge list; it seems that students just can not win.

“I wouldn’t make students pay for passes, I’d hand them out,” said Wilger. There are many things that students would change about the way lunch passes are handled. Portage Northern should listen to the advice.

“I don’t think that their organization system is efficient for the first day of school,” said Mianecke. Portage Northern needs to set up the way passes are handed out to best benefit the students. Portage Northern still has quite a bit to work on.

“Other schools let their students go out for lunch, said Aisha Thaj (11). Portage Northern needs to take a hint and do the same. No student wants to sit in the cafeteria and smell its greasy food. We would rather pay money to leave and do that at McDonald’s, Portage Northern knows that.