The lunch bell rings. Students file out of their classrooms on their way to the cafeteria. It’s the same routine every day. If the school allowed students to leave campus for lunch, there are students that will and that won’t take advantage of the option. Senior Cori Clark said that she would not ever eat out if she was allowed to leave campus for lunch.

“The fact is, the price is so low, [that] people are willing to buy it,” Clark said.

An average meal at Wingstop costs $6, while a combo meal at Whataburger costs about $5. With these restaurants being at a short distance from the school, students would be more likely to visit these fast food restaurants than others. Eating out would cost a student $25-$30 per week only on food, whereas lunch in the cafeteria costs about $2.50 a day, which adds up to about $12.50 per week. In addition, many students get free or reduced lunch.

“When it comes to fast food, I don’t think any price would be worth how disgusting it is,” Clark said.

Clark works at Burger King and says that unless it is an absolute emergency, fast food is not worth her money. After seeing what goes on behind the counters, she believes the health risk outweighs the freedom of being able to leave campus.

With the price and the health risk taken into consideration, Clark believes that students will slowly start to realize that their freedom to eat out might not be so appealing.

“I think [there] would be an extreme decline [in students eating out] from the beginning of the [year] toward the end of the year,” Clark said.

Junior Renita Robinson thinks differently about being able to leave campus for lunch. She goes out to eat about four times a week.

“It’s mainly because no one’s cooking,” Robinson said.

Robinson’s favorite place to eat is Wingstop, and her favorite meal is the 10 piece lemon pepper wings, which costs about $12 a meal. If she had the option to go out and eat lunch off campus, she said she would take it in a heartbeat. She may not go out every day, but probably every other day. The price and health factor do not matter to her.

“I work out, but it’s so good,” Robinson said.

Senior Jordan Knighton goes out to eat once or twice a week. Her favorite meal is Chik-Fil-A’s spicy deluxe chicken sandwich which costs about $8. She would go out to eat too if she had the option of an off-campus lunch. Since the price doesn’t matter to her, she would go eat out every day.

“I [prefer] to pay to go out to eat quality food instead of staying here and eating,” Knighton said.