The Lincoln Log

The possibility of a closed campus lunch for the remainder of the year will be in affect immediately if students continue to litter the neighborhood with their trash.

Abraham Lincoln High School Principal Ronald Pang has received a number of complaints from neighbors about the amount of trash on their property.

“Litter is here, it’s across the street, it’s on this side, and you know what? It used to be in just one area, but now it’s all over the neighborhood,” Pang said.

The growing amount of trash is the main problem. Pang and ALHS Dean Joel Balzer supervise open campus lunch along Taraval St., constantly picking up trash left behind by students every single day.

“I’ve been picking up for a while and if [students] don’t change, it might mean a closed campus immediately, not just next year, but immediately,” Pang said.

Pang has also received an email complaint from a neighbor. If the neighbors organize, he will have to enforce a closed campus lunch. Students will not be allowed to leave school premises at any time. They must remain within school grounds until they are dismissed after their last class.

The consequence of the possible closure of the campus would be two lunch periods. Two lunch periods will divide the student body; half will spend lunch in the cafeteria or to the courtyard for lunch, and the rest of the student body will be in class inside the building. The building will be totally off-limits. Clubs will not be able to meet during lunch because classes will be in session. All clubs will have to meet after school, but club sponsors may not be able to supervise because of other commitments.

“Students are pigs and they should clean up after themselves. I’m sure that [they] don’t walk around their homes with garbage all over the place,” physiology teacher Michael Topham said.

Senior Jimmy Huang is concerned about the closure of the campus.

“A closed campus simply wouldn’t work for a school that [has] over two thousand five hundred [students]. The most we could do is enforce stricter rules on those litterbugs,” Huang said. “I feel that a closed campus would do more harm than it would help.”