Letter+to+Legislature

 To Whom It May Concern,  The seniors at North Kingstown High School enjoy precious few privileges. Aside from the ability to sit in a hallway and drive to school, which is also a privileges enjoyed by much of the junior class, they are given nothing. While the lack of privileges in and of itself is not a dangerous thing, the consequences of keeping seniors so sheltered can be. Next year in the “real world” or in a college setting these young adults will no longer be babied or constantly watched by authority figures, they will need to rely on their own sense of responsibility to complete the tasks given to them and ultimately be successful. I feel that denying them simple privileges such as an open campus is retarding their development of crucial skills and senses they will be expected to have later in life. In a career setting they will not be confined to their work space for all hours of the day, they will be allowed to leave and will be expected to arrive back in time. I believe that allowing students to practice the development of such skills in a high school setting would not only be enjoyable for those students, but also practical and beneficial. By practicing an open campus, allowing seniors to leave school grounds during school hours for lunch, seniors would be exposed to the responsibility of leaving and returning their work area in a low risk and relatively low consequence situation. If a student failed to return in a timely fashion, they would most likely receive a detention, a punishment which is an inconvenience at worst. However if a worker fails to do so, they risk being fired which can have serious economic backlashes. By developing an understanding of the rules and consequences in a low risk controlled environment it will hopefully avoid future issues in a career setting where the consequences would be more severe. I am not naive enough to assume that the changes I advocate for would be implemented soon or even this year, but I hope that you as the major decision makers in our school district you will at the very least consider the plan we have created for a revised lunch system.