Take a seat and think about this for a minute. A juicy, greasy, delicious slice of pizza with pineapple explodes a gush of juice in your mouth with every bite you take and the tasty sauce that compliments the whole slice bursts with flavor. Do you want some? Well, you can’t. The rules at your very own school prevent you from enjoying time at lunch as it was meant to be enjoyed.

High schools across the nation, Paint Branch High School included, allow only upperclassmen, such as juniors and seniors, to leave campus while freshmen and sophomores are forced to stay in the cafeteria and eat the nauseating school lunches provided by the school. Students in any school can commiserate over how school lunch isn’t the most appetizing meal to eat when you’re desperately trying to put something inside you after finishing rigorous classes.

Recent studies from the School Nutrition Association shows that kids eating school lunches in the United States dropped more than 30 percent in 2012 and 32 percent in 2013. The fact that the number of kids not eating school lunches is continually rising shows that school meals aren’t getting any better in either health or taste, and kids are left hungry and forced to wait until they go back home for their parents to make them a meal or take them out to eat something appetizing or at the very least edible compared to the things they have to choose from at lunch.

If students had the option of leaving campus for lunch, it would not only improve diets but also improve their grades in the classes they take. Students consuming an adequate amount of fruit, vegetables, protein and fiber at lunch scored better on their literacy tests than those who didn’t eat anything at all. The benefits are clear and more needs to be done to improve the lives of children.

Arguments against off-campus for all students revolve around the idea that children will either abuse their privileges early on and won’t come to class on time or their grades will drop in return. These problems can be simply solved by adding certain guidelines, such as rules governing how freshmen and sophomores have to maintain a good GPA in school to keep the privilege. Parents can also choose whether or not they want to limit the distance younger students can go to ensure their safety or require them go with an upperclassman for safety.

Freshmen and sophomores can easily be invited into the privileges of juniors and seniors and deserve to eat what they want to improve their diets and grades, but the school must first see how they can implement it to their rules and, when they do, the lives of freshmen and sophomores will definitely improve.