When students showed up to Greeley West High School this August they found that for the freshman, and sophomores, off campus lunch privileges were no longer available.  For many this was expected, but for some this was a slap in the face. 

Last year, there were a number of off-campus lunch issues mainly due to last school years sophomores and freshman causing issues such as vandalism, fighting, and stealing.  The administration at Greeley West decided after much discussion and planning that the best course of action would be to close campus for underclassmen.  Assistant principal Ms. Amanda Jones stated: “ We have actually been wanting to close campus to freshmen and sophomores for a number of years, but the old building would not allow us to do that because there were too many exits, and no way to supervise it.”

Jones reiterated that behavior was only part of the reason.  “The loss of off-campus is less because of behavior last year and more of us wanting to do this for a long time, though we had multiple reports from the community such as: King Soopers, the adjacent apartments, Subway, Burger King, and more,” Jones said. 

Behavior incidents are down and it is clear that the neighborhood around West is thankful for the decision. This does not change the fact that many students are unhappy with the change to lunch and feel controlled by this new rule.  Freshman Ella Lopez said, “ It kind of makes me mad, frustrated, and disappointed, because I was looking forward to going off campus.”

Lopez thinks she has a better solution.  “I would have the school limit who could go off campus and who was causing issues and let the kids who were behaving go off.” 

Ms. Jones acknowledged that sophomores may be upset with the change, but suggested that most students impacted by the policy really know no different.  “I don’t really think the freshmen really know any different.  The sophomores definitely have the roughest go of it because they did have freedom last year.  To be honest we had a ton of behavior issues with the freshman last year, now sophomores so they did this to themselves a little bit,” Jones said.

There is also some anger towards the students who are responsible for the current lunch situation by other students who are fed up of misbehaving, and the abuse of  off campus privileges.  Sophomore Gavin Peterson said “I’m not really sure what I would say but I would want them to know I am not happy with them.” 

There may be some hope though.  According to Jones, “We don’t want to lump everybody together and we know that there are some sophomores who are crushing it and we would love to give that privilege back to them.  We are talking as an admin team about either at quarter or semester that sophomores that are on track to graduate, don’t have disciplinary issues, and don’t have attendance issues, can have a blue badge which enables you to go off campus.”

Jones also wanted to be clear that juniors and seniors can also easily have their off-campus rights taken away.  “We even have some juniors and seniors who are not on track that we will be taking off campus away from,” Jones said.