Closed Campus

The Edmond North Underclassmen Lots

Ma

The Edmond North Underclassmen Lots

Edmond North hopes to increase campus supervision and safety for the 2022-23 school year. They plan on doing this by having a closed campus during the school day. In a back-to-school newsletter sent out in August, the administration explained that the east entrance on Thomas closes from 9:30 a.m.to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. 

The closed campus allows juniors and seniors leaving for off-campus lunch to leave through the gate on Thomas, but they have to re-enter the school through the entrance on Fretz and Danforth. Only having one entrance creates more traffic, especially around the Danforth and Fretz intersection. This affects both Edmond North students and the people driving on Danforth. 

When hundreds of students are trying to get through one gate, it takes much longer, causing students to spend a large portion of their 35-minute lunch waiting in a line of cars. Both short and long lunches have negative implications—especially short, as it can cause teen drivers to rush back to school, creating a safety issue. When students feel like they need to drive above the speed limit to make it back to class in time, they endanger themselves and the people around them. An NHTSA study found that the likelihood of risky behavior increases when traveling with multiple passengers, and most students leave for lunch with their friends.

The process of getting back to school has become much more time-consuming, and the new traffic by the gate has caused many students to be late for their after-lunch class. 

Students, like junior Macy Robberson, are frustrated with the situation. “I leave the restaurant early enough that I should not be late to class, but all the traffic with students trying to make it back really causes problems,” Robberson said.

Being tardy for class affects a student’s education in different ways. Class time is valuable, and being tardy can make a student miss out on information. Three tardies add up to one absence, and too many absences can cause a student to lose credit for a class.  

Mrs. Butler, a US History teacher at Edmond North, discusses tardies and their lasting impact on attendance.

“They can eventually have enough tardies to not get credit for a class. It is very impactful for a student to be late,” Butler said. 

While the closed gate might be frustrating, some understand that our safety is the administration’s priority. There are two sides to the argument of the gate issue; but in the end, closing the campus won’t increase safety the way it was intended to. 

For questions or comments, please email Maria McCrea at [email protected]