Officials Throw Out Open Campus Idea

An idea to let some high school seniors leave campus for lunch was thrown out by officials today.

The Temecula Valley Unified School District will keep campuses closed for the foreseeable future, the board of trustees decided at a meeting at the today.

To read more about the plan, .

The plan would let seniors in good standing to leave campus for lunch, according to Superintendent Tim Ritter. "They're not students who are in academic distress," he said.

If the students fail to return on time, the privilege would be revoked, he told board members.

Only one high school have a lunch period long enough to let students leave, and that long lunch period comes only once a week, according to the superintendent.

Temecula Valley High has a long lunch on Fridays that would accommodate the policy.

This may cause students to grumble at the other high schools, said Trustee Bob Brown.

Also, the plan brings up liability issues. "I find it difficult to believe we wouldn't have some liability when you consider we have liability both to and from school," Ritter said.

"The liability problems are too great, and we'd have problems with other high schools," Brown said. "I don't see what we'd accomplish with this."

The policy may entice students into ditching class, Board President Allen Pulsipher said. "I'm concerned we'll see a spike in truancies, I'm afraid we'll see a spike in tardies," he said.

The school already has a plan in place that lets seniors off the campus during class time, Ritter said. Between 30 and 40 percent of seniors have reduced schedules, letting seniors leave after fifth period.

Trustee Kristi Rutz-Robbins pushed to gather input from parents before making a decision. "As a parent, I know I'd have some reservations," she said.

Since the board decided to scratch the idea, there was no need to gather input, Brown said.

In the end, the closed campus policy had too many advantages to change, Trustee Vince O'Neal said. "It limits the opportunity to make poor decisions," he said.

Devin Jones, a Temecula Valley High School student who proposed the change, was disappointed to see the plan turned down.

"I knew liability would be the biggest issue," he said.

When he was asked about support from other students, he said, "I got the usual kind of school response. 'Yeah, we totally want that,' but nobody was willing to do anything about it."

CLARIFICATION: This article was changed on Oct. 7 , 2011 from the original version to add context to Devin Jones' comments about the support he got from his fellow students.