The bell signals lunch time at Lawrence High. For some students, this means food, conversation, and a short break to refuel themselves. For others, lunch is a time to whip out the hemp and blaze up.
To these students lunch is not only an escape from school, but an escape from reality.
Veterans Park, across the street from Lawrence High School, is infamous as the go-to place for students looking to evade the school’s authority.
“I love parks, but I sure wish we didn’t have one across the street,” Assistant Principal Mike Norris said. “I think it’s a detriment for a lot of kids.”
The park is more commonly used as a place where students can skip school and smoke marijuana and cigarettes rather than a place to enjoy the fresh air. School officials say there have been cases where parents have called the school with concerns about their kids skipping school. Some of these parents don’t understand why the school can’t keep their kids in the building.
“[The school is] not a prison,” Norris said. “We have three security guards. We can’t man all 22 exits.”
Parents may think Lawrence High does not have adequate security, but the fact is students are not forbidden from leaving the building during lunch.
“I think our security guards here are great,” student resource officer Mike Cobb said. “I think they do a great job.”
Now it becomes a question of what the school is doing to stop the skipping and smoking that goes on at the park.
“I can’t speak to what the city and law enforcement [are] doing,” Norris said. “I do know they do some things and have had sting operations, and to be perfectly honest it’s my understanding they have surveillance over there quite frequently. I’ve been known to walk through the park on occasion or the security guards will walk through the park on occasion, really just to round up kids who are skipping.”
Students may think that since they are not on school property, the school does not have the right to stop them skipping class or smoking.
“If I walk over to the park and there’s a group of kids and I say, ‘Hey you guys need to come back to school with me’ and a kid says no, it’s not like I’m going to chase them down or anything,” Norris said.
School faculty can’t force students to come back to school, but students are informed that they will be getting suspended. The Lawrence Police Department has taken steps to stop the illicit activities at Veterans park, but their goal is a permanent solution.
“It’s not necessarily that we’re trying to catch every person doing things,” Cobb said. “We’re trying to catch people that are supplying things to people. I’m here for a purpose, and it’s not necessarily to keep kids in class.”