WOODBURY — Leave and return, or opportunities for disaster? Students leaving campus leaves nothing but room for problems: car accidents, drinking, drugs, and the list can go on. In the school’s best interest, leave and return should not be an option. 

“My biggest concern is the liability the school can have,” said Officer Chris O’Toole, Nonnewaug High School’s resource officer. “Kids driving around, God forbid they get in an accident, they get involved in something, they start doing things they aren’t supposed to do, drink or do drugs or something like that and come back to the school.”

Kids going out unsupervised opens all sorts of doors for casualties. A group of kids driving without supervision and without anyone really knowing where they are off to? All I see is a bad path right being drawn out in front of them.

“There was an accident just recently, a kid rolled his car over,” said O’Toole. “There have been others. I have been here since 2018 and there have been several accidents out there where kids have been involved. We’ve been called by the police that kids were involved in certain things.”

You know students complain all the time about homework and not having enough time in class to do work, but instead they go out and spend their time doing who knows what. 

“When I was a kid, you went to school, you stayed in school, and you went home,” said O’Toole. “I think that would be a better use of time, and their leaving during study hall where they could get work done, maybe get extra help if they need it, [leave and return] doesn’t provide any help.”

Some students totally disagree with this. I mean, why wouldn’t they? Teenagers have the opportunity to order food and hang out with friends. 

“I think leave and return is a good idea,” said Julia Longoria, a Nonnewaug junior. “Normally I just go and get food, but if it’s the 90-minute [block period], I go home since I don’t live too far away. I think we should keep leave and return only for juniors and seniors.”

Is it the easy choice? No, but getting rid of leave and return would be the right decision.

This is the opinion of Chief Advocate reporter Ava Hustek, a junior at Nonnewaug.