By Lori Ehde
Luverne High School Students plan to defend their open campus freedoms at tonight's School Board meeting.
During the last meeting on Oct. 10, members of Parents: The Anti Drug and Violence Task Force asked the board to consider closing the campus to eliminate the temptation to use drugs during free periods when they're allowed off campus.
Luverne Community Hospital Chemical Dependency Coordinator Stephanie Pierce said she'd done some checking with area districts within the 507 area code.
Of 36 districts she checked, 21 have closed campuses. In the immediate area, Worthington and Pipestone have open campuses, but Pipestone's will be closed when the new school is built. H-BC is open, but students can't be in or drive their cars. Fairmont and Windom are closed campuses.
Of the open districts, five don't allow driving or access to vehicles during school hours. Two allow driving only with written permission.
"With a closed noon hour, maybe they wouldn't be exposed to so much opportunity to use drugs or smoke cigarettes," Pierce said at the Oct. 10 meeting.
The idea of closing the campus prompted objections from Luverne High School students, who weren't given an opportunity to speak at that meeting.
Dan Amborn, high school student body president, and Canaan Petersen, vice president, are on the agenda for tonight's School Board meeting.
Amborn said he understands the motives of Task Force members, but he said closing the campus wouldnÕt go that far in combating drugs and it wouldn't be fair.
"We can understand their concerns, but we don't want to punish so many kids for the errors of a few," he told the Star Herald Tuesday.
Luverne's campus is open to eligible students during the 29-minute noon period, as well during 50-minute study halls. Amborn said he personally eats and stays on campus for lunch, but he enjoys coming in late after his first-hour study hall.
Amborn said as far he knows local drug problems donÕt start at school.
"I don't doubt that there are some who use drugs, but there haven't been any major problems here in years," he said, adding that closing the campus might do more harm than good.
"If you close the campus, the kids who are doing it - and that's very few - will bring drugs into the building and expose it to those who would probably otherwise never be exposed," he said.
High School Principal Gary Fisher said he wouldn't support closing the campus. He said an open campus is a nice way to reward responsible behavior.
"I look at it this way: Kids are given the opportunity to show they're responsible, and until they show they're not responsible, don't penalize them," Fisher told the Star Herald Monday.
"It's all about expecting kids to do the right thing. If we are going to teach kids to be responsible, we need to give them an opportunity to experience freedom."
Fisher said heÕs taken away open campus privileges for certain groups of students for a certain length of time, but he said his high school student body is remarkably well-behaved, compared with many closed campus districts.
When asked to speculate on how many students are using drugs, Fisher said thereÕs no way to know for sure.
"Anybody can use drugs. If they're using, they're going to use whether we close the campus or not," he said. "If you ask the kids, they'll tell you anybody can get drugs, and sometimes it's surprising who they'll see using at a party. It's not just a certain group of kids who dress or look a certain way."
He added that Luverne students don't like having the reputation that they use drugs.
"They've said, 'Bring in the dogs once a month.' They donÕt want it [drugs] here any more than anybody else does."
A surprise visit by two drug dogs on the middle-school high school campus Wednesday, Oct. 16, turned up no evidence of drugs, but Fisher said snowy weather that day may have prevented the dogs from detecting drugs in the parking lot.
Tonight's School Board meeting begins at 8 p.m. in the Middle School/High School library.