After the accident involving eight Placer students, the question now being asked is, should Placer become a closed campus?

Since then, many arguments have appeared, some parents and students have argued that the campus should be closed for both safety reasons and to keep track of all the students and make sure the students will not get into any trouble.

Others believe that an open campus can encourage cutting class. Some say Placer should keep its campus open for traditional reasons because it has been an open campus for as long as it has been a high school. They also argue that would be very hard to close this campus because there are two city streets going through the campus. Many local businesses around this campus would be affected since some of the businesses depend on students during lunch. Some other parents, teachers, and students say that an open campus teaches students responsibility, time management, money management, and to respect businesses.

Placer should remain open  at lunch because because this is one of the perks we were looking forward to when we began attending Placer.As 8th graders we were looking forward to finally being able to go off campus and get something to eat. It would be very hard to close this campus due to its location in downtown Auburn.

The argument that students could get into acar accident during lunch is a weak one. Students, unfortunately can get into a car accident any time fo the day.

 “A knee jerks response would be to close the campus in reaction to the crash but if you look to the culture of the campus and how long it’s been open and how many accidents have occurred there is really no reason to close it,” said teacher Toby Covich.

The difficult thing would be putting a fence around the school since some of the towns streets run through the campus.

  Trying to feed the 1400 students that go here would be another problem, we would probably have to have two or more lunches. What it really comes down to is the responsibility of the student and taking the responsibility of time management.

“Yes it can be dangerous but its your decision. Students need to be careful and make the right decisions. An accident like that can happen any time before or after school. All in all, I don’t want this campus to be closed,” added Covich.

Sophomore Cody Meikle agreed.  “I definitely think this campus should be open. If it was to close, it would definitely affect the local businesses. I think kids should have the freedom to go out and do what they want. There are obviously risks with going off campus but even it was closed there are also risks everyday on campus like fire and things.”

Although there are many staff members and students that can understand the many reasons why a campus should be closed, most feel that the benefits of an open campus outweigh the risks.

This is what makes Placer unique from all the other campuses in our district.  We are sure the issue of a closed campus will come up again in the future but, hopefully, the idea will be dismissed like it should.