Prometheus 6

And some districts have found other benefits to a closed-lunch policy: In Denver, attendance in afternoon classes improved after many 9th and 10th graders were barred from going out to lunch last school year. In Bridgman, Mich., a town of about 2,500 on Lake Michigan, cafeteria sales have been up more than 10 percent in the two years since the high school closed its campus.

“Our food service program operates in the black now, whereas it never did before,” said Kevin Ivers, Bridgman’s superintendent, noting that the high school had added a second lunch period to reduce lines, and overhauled the menu to introduce quesadillas, yogurt, salads and fruit. “That enables us to put more money into the classrooms.”

Fatal Accidents Erode Perk of Off-Campus Lunches
By WINNIE HU

SMITHTOWN, N.Y. — The students used to overflow the wooden booths and green tables at Don Jono’s Pizzeria, racing through pepperoni slices and large sodas before driving the quarter-mile back to Smithtown High School West in time for their next class.

But now the pizzas pile up behind the counter. Pete Crescimanno, a compact man with a neat black mustache who co-owns the place, estimates that he has lost more than $500 a week in sales since the school district ended its longstanding policy of allowing seniors to go off-campus for lunch. One recent morning, Mr. Crescimanno and an assistant pounded and tossed dough in a nearly empty storefront, with only the radio to break the silence.

“It’s not the same, and you miss that because you used to prepare for the kids and now you don’t see them,” he said. “Of course, you miss the business, but you also miss the fact that they’re not here anymore.”

Smithtown is one of a number of districts on Long Island and around the country that have recently closed their campuses at lunchtime, canceling a generations-old rite of passage because of school officials’ and parents’ growing concern over traffic accidents and in some cases, truancy. This 11,000-student district in Suffolk County stopped allowing students to go out for lunch in November, the day after a lunchtime car accident that killed two Smithtown West seniors and a third teenager.

Three weeks ago, the 2,600-student West Hempstead district in Nassau County became the latest to suspend its open-campus policy after two high school students were fatally injured in a lunchtime car accident; the school board is reviewing the policy. A third district, Jericho, closed its campus after a high school student was crushed by a vehicle in the parking lot in 2005, and more than a dozen others across Long Island have re-evaluated or tightened their open-lunch policies in recent years, according to school officials and parents.

The accidents on Long Island have prompted State Assemblyman Michael N. Gianaris, a Democrat from Queens, to propose legislation that would prohibit students from driving during school lunch periods. The New York State School Boards Association is among the opponents of that plan, arguing that such matters should be decided by local districts.

Across the country, more districts are deciding that they are better off without open lunch periods. Fort Worth, Tex., closed its 13 high school campuses at lunchtime this year after finding that in addition to becoming involved in traffic accidents, students were more likely to skip classes before and after lunch. Peoria, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, also closed its high school campuses at lunchtime this year after a contentious debate that divided parents and school board members and led 1,200 students to walk out of class in protest.

“The high school experience is supposed to be a positive experience; it’s not supposed to be an incarceration,” said Joseph Bernier, 40, a father of four in Peoria who has collected more than 2,400 signatures from parents and students in an effort to reopen the campuses.