Beginning next school year, seniors will no longer be allowed to leave campus for lunch.

In an email sent out to staff on March 19, Principal Mark Corti wrote that he made a decision to close campus following student and parent input.

Corti later said in an interview that the only students he remembers speaking to about closing campus were from leadership, and their responses were “not mostly positive.”

“The decision has been made as an administrative team because safety is the number one priority,” said Corti.

Corti is closing campus because several students have been in car accidents rushing to get food and return to campus in the designated 35-minute lunch period. He also expressed his concerns about students who return from lunch and disrupt the class by eating their food.

English teacher Sean King agrees with this logic.

“I don’t think [closed campus is] a bad idea,” said King.  “Lunch is only 35 minutes long. It’s a formula for fender benders and other bad things.”

Although King is for closed campus, most students feel differently. In a poll conducted of 225 students, 85 percent were opposed to closed campus and 15 percent supported it.

According to a poll conducted by The Californian in November, 37 percent of seniors said they stay on campus while 63 percent leave for lunch. This 63 percent of seniors translates into roughly 378 more people that will be forced to remain on campus next year, raising the concern for potential overcrowding during lunch.

Many students have expressed concern for the potential lack of eating room on campus with the addition of more seniors.

“There’s the issue that it’s more than just the seniors leaving,” said freshman Marissa Leatherman. “With an increase of an entire class, where’s everyone going to sit? There’s no food (allowed) in the main building or the library.”

Corti’s solution to the surplus of seniors is to open the gym every day to increase the amount of eating space on campus. Seeing as the cafeteria only seats 550 students the gym will have to be opened in order to make room about 2,600 students on campus.

Other students, especially juniors, have voiced their frustrations over not being allowed to leave next year.

“Why should we have a privilege that we’ve been waiting for, for four years taken away because of mistakes that other people made?” said junior Shashank Rao. “It’s not fair.”

Junior Brenda Shanahan is against the closed campus as well.

“My sister was able to leave campus when she was a senior, so why shouldn’t I?” she asked.

Current seniors are also dissatisfied with the closed campus policy next year, although they will not be affected. Senior Rainier Austin disagrees with the basis of closing campus.

“I think that his (Corti’s ) reasoning and logic behind his policy is flawed,” said Austin. “Also I think that by banning it completely, it’s just going to be more dangerous.”

Other seniors, such as Sarah Blatter are apathetic toward the issue.

“I don’t really care because it doesn’t involve me and I’m not going to be here next year. But I feel like kids that live really close should be able to go home for lunch,” said Blatter.