Credit: Ryan Chase

Staff Reporter Maddie Zajac and WSPN’s Ryan Chase discuss their opinions on campus lines.

If you are a student or a parent of a student at Wayland High School, you likely know the WHS policy of not leaving campus as an underclassman. The policy states that only juniors and seniors who have completed the necessary steps to achieve off-campus privileges can leave the school’s campus, which includes the two main buildings, Field House and turf, during school hours.

First-year students at WHS can only leave study hall after the first semester has passed, as long as they are holding C- grade averages or higher. With that being said, there tends to be a mutual agreement about off-campus privileges among underclassmen and students who do not have off-campus privileges. We believe that sophomores, juniors and seniors should be allowed to spend time on the tennis and basketball courts and the pool instead of being limited to just the high school buildings.

The tennis and basketball courts are great places to exercise and play sports, as there are only certain times that students can play these sports in the Field House due to wellness classes. Furthermore, although most students won’t go for a swim during their school day, the pool has comfortable chairs and can be a good study spot. Some students have also found that the pool has better wi-fi than the school buildings, making online work easier to complete.

An important point to consider is that all of the spaces mentioned above are within the school’s entrance, so shouldn’t they be considered a part of WHS’s campus? For students who have free periods, only having access to the main two buildings can be limiting. We tend to get distracted in the commons, library and SLCs, resulting in a lack of productivity.

A concern that some teachers and administrators have about underclassmen leaving campus is that during an emergency, they would not know where students are. However, most teachers and administrators don’t know precisely where students are in the school buildings during free periods anyways. All that is known is that students without off-campus privileges are on WHS’s campus, so why not extend the boundaries of campus? In the case of an emergency in the building, we feel that we would be much safer at the pool, tennis or basketball courts. If we weren’t in the building, we would be further from danger and able to escape safely.

Expanding the campus would benefit students, giving them more places to be active outside and quieter places to study. We believe that WHS’s entire campus should be used to its fullest extent. By giving students more freedom within campus, students might feel less desire to sneak off campus against school policy.

Additionally, with spring and warmer weather approaching, it is even more important to push students to spend more time outside. Since some students also like to be active during the school day, allowing them to play pickleball, basketball or tennis at the WHS courts could be a constructive and beneficial decision for their emotional and physical health.

Extending the campus could be a simple and very effective way to give students more space to socialize with friends, get fresh air and feel more content overall while attending WHS.

“I think it would be beneficial for students who don’t have off campus privileges to be allowed to go to the pool, basketball and tennis courts [since] they are within boundaries of the entrance to the high school,” sophomore Jack Doyle said. “For students that participate in tennis, swim or basketball, they can practice that sport instead of wasting time being bored in the commons or library [during free periods].”

Extending campus would be extra work for campus security, but we believe that it would be more than worth it due to the benefits that students would receive from an extended WHS campus.