The location of Highland, East, and West high schools all created a complicated problem for the Salt Lake City School District: How can safety be ensured when Highland is attached to a city park, East is neighbors with a college campus, and West is in the heart of a major city?
All of these campuses have operated under an “open campus” policy, allowing students to leave the grounds during the school day. While many students use this opportunity to have lunch out with friends or go home for a free period, it also creates a less-regulated environment that poses safety concerns.
But closing campuses – where students cannot leave at any time unless excused, including during lunch – is becoming more common in high schools across the nation, particularly in the east where populations are denser. It is not as common in the west, though Judge Memorial – just two miles from Highland – operates under a closed-campus system.
But could the Salt Lake District ever move to a closed campus model?
SLCSD superintendent Dr. Liz Grant has recognized closing campuses as a possibility, though not a current topic of discussion, when navigating the unique circumstances surrounding the Salt Lake high schools.
“Safety is the first thing that we have to get right and one of the hardest things to get right especially when guns are so plentiful,” Grant said. “We have to find the right way to do that while balancing education and creating environments that are both welcoming and safe.”
Similarly, the SLCSD Board members, including Highland’s precinct representative Amanda Longwell, have never had a formal discussion about changing this campus policy but have informally discussed the option.
“I recall some previous discussion regarding this matter, but I do not believe it has been addressed formally and in detail during my time on the board,” Longwell said.
The idea of a closed campus would be drastic change for students, teachers, and administrators, but there are several issues that this could help resolve.
Highland principal Jeremy Chatterton believes that controlling the environment in the school would not only help with monitoring the comings and goings of people, improving safety, but also encourage students to be on time and in class.
“From the management side, it would be helpful to not have to worry about students going on and off campus all throughout the day,” Chatterton said, “and more times than not, I’m seeing students come in five minutes late and that’s challenging for teachers trying to get things started and going.”
Critics to a closed-campus policy believe that allowing kids the opportunity to take charge of their own accountability is a skill that needs to be developed in high school before students’ graduate. When students have to manage their time and make the decision to show up it prepares them for success in adulthood.
“I see the benefits of having the freedom and teaching independence and accountability that comes with that because you’re going to be adults soon,” Highland assistant to the principal Audrey Bliss said.
From a safety standpoint, a change in policy might be able to reduce concerns for administrators. Due to the current policies anyone can leave whenever, and Sugar House Park lends itself to a place for students to be unsupervised during school hours.
This has been a big concern for Highland administration. Highland SRO Grace Maldonado believes that kids will find a way to get into trouble no matter what, but it is less of a challenge when there is an isolated area connected to campus.
“It’s a hot zone for kids to go over there and do things they are not supposed to do,” Maldanado said. “It gives kids an easy way to not go to school.”
Knowing who is in the building helps ensure safety but also not allowing students to leave at lunch keeps them out of the parking lot. A study done by The Journal of Adolescent Health found that crash rates over the lunch hours were significantly higher for teenagers in the counties with open-lunch policies.
In January alone, there were two accidents involving students leaving the Highland parking lot. With the upcoming closure of the north and east parking lots, all students and teachers will be forced to park in the south lot. The already busy parking lot will be overwhelmingly full, putting students at a higher risk of being in an accident.
Every day, Highland junior Makenna Morris either goes home for lunch or out with her friends. Along with many others, Morris is heavily against the idea of this change but can still see a possible benefit.
“The only benefit I can see is there will be less cars on the road at that time [lunch],” Morris said.
From an administration perspective the idea of having all students in the building during lunch is not an option. The Highland cafeteria can only hold about 400 people at a time. Even split between two lunches, that leave about 1,200 students without a place to eat. On top of capacity, this would create more expenses for the district.
“It would put a larger burden on our food service people in terms of making sure we can get food out to everybody,” Chatterton said. “They would have to open up every one of the lunch counters, which would then increase the cost in terms of what our child nutrition department at the district would have to take on.”
Much of the push back that would be received would regard lunches especially from students who eat out on a regular basis. Longwell noted that this could have a negative impact on students who rely on off-campus food options, many of these students being junior and seniors that can drive.
“I go out [for lunch] a lot, like almost every single day,” Highland junior Hazel Thiese said.
Bliss experienced both a closed campus and open campus in high school and can see the benefits that a closed campus had on her education. Bliss attended a closed campus in upstate New York for her sophomore and junior year that had a fence surrounding the campus and security at all the exits. She then switched to an open campus when she moved to Utah for her senior year.
“As a teenager I loved open campus but as an adult looking back the closed campus was better for me,” Bliss said, “I needed the stability; I needed more guidance staying on campus. I struggled with going to class in Utah.”
The constantly changing world brings up new challenges every year that the SLCSD has to adapt to. The are many factors that go into making a decision this large, and the SLCSD would have to be fully convinced that the switch to closed campuses would do more good than harm for them to even consider it.
“I need to study it more to see what problems it would solve, what problems it would create and is that balance worth going after,” Grant said. “We have such a culture of open campus that I would have to be convinced in my own self that this was the right way to go because I would be pushing against a current to make it happen.”
