Sophomores should be able to leave the campus during their lunch period. The Sophomore class, who were Freshmen last year, were able to leave the campus for lunch. They were able to have freedom, and could go eat lunch at any place they desired. This year, the Sophomore class can no longer leave the campus for lunch. This feels both unfair, and unjust. Last year, the Sophomore class was able to leave for lunch, and now, us as Sophomores, we are not able to. On top of that, we were not even offered a reasonable explanation for why the change occurred. 

This change does not only affect the Sophomore and Freshmen classes, but also local restaurants such as Tamales Diana, China Court, and other restaurants. Due to over half of the school now being denied access to buy food from these businesses, they may now suffer from the decreased amount of customers.

Now that we are unable to leave campus to buy food, we are being guided to buy the school lunch food. This takes away the ability for us to eat the food that we want. Although there are options given out for lunch, these options are very limited. They take away our freedom of choice to eat whatever we want. Also, the prices for some of the food items may be too expensive for some people. For example, the price of a sandwich and a bag of chips is around $6. This is also the price of a lunch at China Court. This may not at first glance seem like anything is overpriced, but once looked at further, there appears to be a clear price-to-food ratio indifference. The turkey sandwich with a bag of chips is around 400 calories. The orange chicken meal at China Court is around 950 calories. This shows that the China Court meal gives significantly more food, for the same price.

We feel that this change harms the student body and the freedom that people have during lunch time. We simply want lunch to go back to how it was last year, where all grade levels could go out for lunch. We know that this was unusual last year, due to previous years having the same situation we are currently in, where only upperclassmen can leave for lunch. However, we think that this change should not have been reversed, but instead kept.

If the reason the change was reversed due to trust issues, and kids skipping classes, then why are upperclassmen still allowed to go out for lunch? If the reason was for "tradition", where upperclassmen have more perks than us, then we ask why you remove a change that was loved by everyone? Also, some upperclassmen who are friends with a Sophomore or Freshmen are not able to go out and eat lunch with that person. 

Please reallow all grade levels to go off campus lunch or at the very least allow the current Sophomore class to leave for lunch.