Closed Campus Policy

The open campus policy allows select or all students to leave campus during the lunch period. Currently, ASFM has a closed campus policy, where students are not allowed to leave the campus during school hours. This is something that was removed in 2010 for several reasons since it affected the school in certain areas. The open-campus policy is something currently allowed in many high schools and colleges all around the world, which helps the institutes but at the same time affects them in some ways. The American School Foundation of Monterrey should maintain its current closed campus policy as it prevents students from skipping school or arriving late, protects their health and safety, and being unsupervised can lead to bad decisions and actions.

If students are able to leave, it puts them at risk in many ways, as it is harder to regulate their safety and they may be attacked or hit by other vehicles while walking or driving around. In the United States, there was research done examining the difference in vehicles crashes for teens in counties with and without open-campus policies during lunchtime. The results showed how crash rates during lunch hours were significantly higher for teenagers at districts with open-campus policies, also accounting how this districts had no elevated crash risk during other time periods. “Crash rates over the lunch hours were significantly higher for teenagers,” is exactly what Lorraine Stone stated, the author for this research. We clearly see how accidents are a threat to the students health if the open campus policy was allowed. The vehicle occupants drastically increased during the school lunch hours, meaning there is a higher possibility for crashes to occur. Schools should not be able to take this risk of putting their students in danger. To add on, at high school El Campo, the board of directors discussed this policy at their school. Judy Waligura, a member of the board, voted to close their campus and stated certain points. “There have been incidents of car accidents and we need to do something to protect the kids from themselves," is

Opening the campus to all students gives them the advantage and opportunity to do anything they please, putting in danger their families, the school and most importantly the students themselves. The current students are the hope for our near future and we need to find a way to nourish them the best we possibly can. Having a closed campus is just the beginning to help them become successful along their path of