Once students enter high school, they immediately take on more independence than they ever have before. Gables gives fellow cavaliers the opportunity to choose most of their classes as well as where they want to be during lunch hours. Since Gables is such a large school, with almost 4,000 students, it is hard to keep track of where each person is at any given hour of the day. Plus, it is very open and it gives several students the occasional will to skip class, or simply just leave school. If the faculty and administration would have always been strict on where students were during school hours, since the beginning of the year, students would not have the urge to skip.

Many students who decide not go to class will find a place such as another classroom to secretly hide in without getting caught. Students will also take advantage of classes where there is not a lot of work, or where teachers do not notice absences often. Personally, if a student is not doing anything in a class, he or she should have the opportunity to go to the library, or sit outside and catch up on homework.

During the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, until the month of January, students took advantage of leaving school since security guards were not located near the student or teacher parking lots. Now, since the beginning of February, the faculty and administration have taken drastic measures. Security guards have locked all gates by the student and teacher parking lot. Security guards are also located at almost every location on campus.

The main reason that the faculty and administration are becoming strict on students skipping school is because they care about every students’ safety and education. If a student decided to skip school and something were to happen to them, the school would be liable. Situations like these could ruin Gables’s reputation in a drastic way.

But our school is located almost in the center of the City of Coral Gables, and there are several tasty restaurants and coffee shops to go grab a quick meal or drink at nearby. Therefore, students should at least be allowed to leave during lunch hours, and come back for their regular classes.

“I think students should be allowed to leave school during their lunch hour to grab something to eat, and then come back to class” sophomore Alexa Noelle said.

Not only do some students decide to not attend class, but others decide to take advantage of getting  OJT (On the Job Training) in which allows them to leave school early to go to work. Many cavaliers that are in OJT claim they go to work after school, but they immediately either go home or go grab some lunch, while some truly go to their job after school. This gives these students, the opportunity to only go half of the day to school and not get in trouble for it.

Skipping has been and will always be a huge issue in high schools. Students have the responsibility to attend school just like adults have to go to work. However, most grownups have the ability to go where they would like to have lunch during work, so students should be given the chance to leave campus and grab a quick bite, and then go back to school, of course.