[hombre_fatal]

Meanwhile, in Texas (~2005), we weren't even allowed to leave the building to eat on the patio outside in high school.

Something I thought a lot about when I moved to Mexico and saw kids leaving school at lunch to wander out and eat lunch together in the surrounding part of the city.

Too much dangerous liability to allow going outside during lunch hours in a wealthy part of Texas, but not in Guadalajara, Mexico and nor of the world. Sigh.

[mbreese]

In Indiana (mid 90s), we had an open lunch policy in high school. This meant we could all leave campus, so long as we were back by the start of the next class. It was great and we had many choices for quick lunch nearby. I remember picking up something fast, but eating lunch at a park with friends often. The small amount of freedom (and trust) was very nice.

Sadly, I think they stopped allowing that the year after I graduated.

[acdha]

I had that in Southern California. It lasted until two years after I graduated, when a student brought a gun to school and started shooting. The school administration which had ignored multiple warning signs with that student decided open lunch was a security risk.

[mettamage]

> Meanwhile, in Texas (~2005), we weren't even allowed to leave the building to eat on the patio outside in high school.

> Too much dangerous liability to allow going outside during lunch hours in a wealthy part of Texas, but not in Guadalajara, Mexico and nor of the world. Sigh.

Do you think it actually was or is the US just really strict about this?

[hombre_fatal]

I think there's just liability creep in the US that over time leads to zero-tolerance policies that win over, say, adult discretion.

For example, in the same high school, I had an unopened beer can on the floor of my car from the weekend, and one of our golf cart parking lot cops saw it while doing her window snooping. And I got sent to reassignment school for a month and a minor in possession charge even though various people in the faculty thought it was unfair that I couldn't just dispose of it and go on my way since I was a good student who clearly wasn't intending to drink at school.

Meanwhile my dad said just decades earlier he kept his BB rifle in the bed of his truck when he drove to high school in Houston. Something that would probably get SWAT called on you if they found it in your truck by the time I went to high school.

[jdbernard]

Their experience is not universal as I also went to High School in Texas in the early 2000's and not only were we allowed to eat on school grounds, if you were old enough to have a license you could drive off campus for lunch as long as you were back before the next period.