You’ve seen that sophomore with Starbucks during advisory, and you’ve (never) seen that one senior around campus. What is the deal with Lakeside students going off campus?
A pumpkin spice latte, a Chick-fil-A Spicy Deluxe chicken sandwich, a taro bubble tea. All on the menu for the lucky students who have (and don’t have) the privilege of going off campus.
Leaving campus has been a well-known, well-capitalized benefit at Lakeside. Aurora Ave. frequentist and senior Mia S. ’26 guesses “a good majority of the seniors go off campus,” with Junior 1 adding that a large portion of juniors, although disallowed by Lakeside’s Community Expectations, ditch school grounds too. It’s no secret: students, even ones forbidden, depart from campus.
Consistency varies; Mia went off campus one or twice a week at the start of the school year when the weather was nicer, although now rarely leaves campus due to poor weather. Hannah B. ’26, who usually gets “recruited” for chauffeuring missions, gets to go “very often, maybe twice or three times a week.” On the younger side, Junior 2 mentions they go off campus weekly, five times in October and three in September. Last, Junior 1 says they leave once every two to three weeks.
“I usually tend to stay on campus because it’s extra stress to leave campus and then come back,” explains Junior 2. “But when it’s like a free week, and I don’t really like the lunch of the day, I’ll usually leave campus to go get other food… There are some instances where I’ll go during ACT … to just go to a cafe and then be productive there and then come back.”
For Lakeside’s campus defectors, their top destinations fall largely in the realm of dining. Since trips are usually for food, students most often leave campus during lunch or ACT. Although, seniors like Hannah who have plenty of free periods make the most out of that time.
Junior 2 explains they usually drive to get alternative lunches because “sometimes I just want something else, [like] sushi from Sprouts.” On the other hand, Mia notes that her off-campus trips are usually to just grab a drink, rather than a meal. Compared to other students, “I’m not a very picky eater, but I know other people are, and they don’t really like the lunch.”
A sentiment shared among all interviewees: trips for food are almost always with at least another buddy — “I don’t really go off campus by myself, just because there’s no point in that,” Junior 1 mentions. Although sometimes, Mia has to go run an errand like buying a gift for a friend, which is a solo mission.
Aside from food, Mia also heads to Twin Ponds with her friends, especially when the weather is favorable. For Junior 2, another non-culinary reason is to study, citing Rain Cafe as their top destination because “the environment is just more studious.”
Although they try not to go off campus right before a class or important ACT, one time they ended up late to their last period class. In retrospect, they contemplated, “Was this drink necessary? When you’re late to class? The answer is no.”
Mia, Hannah, and Junior 1 say they don’t often run into people off campus often. Contrarily, Junior 2 adds they encounter other Lakesiders often at Rain Cafe. Mia and Junior 1 also add that Starbucks is another common gathering ground, with Junior 1 mentioning they’ve seen a Lakesider there every visit.
In the end, the decision to go off campus, students believe, is a mix of volition and influence.
“I feel like this year, it’s my own thing,” Junior 2 explains. Their sophomore year, they believe, might’ve been influenced by their friends of the same grade who’d invite them to tag along. “But that’s where the scare factor also came in,” they add. “I was scared to get in trouble. But now, there’s less of that.”
On the other hand, Mia thinks her choice to leave off campus is purely to get a little snack, rather than because other students are doing so.
Hannah disagrees, mentioning her jealousy of upperclassmen as a freshman. When she got a car, “I was like obviously now I’m going to leave all the time. I’ve been wanting to do that for multiple years.”
“It doesn’t take that much to influence culture,” she says. “I had a different friend who really liked going off campus, so I went with her all the time… you don’t need that many people who want to go as long as they just string everyone else along with them.”
Now, when Junior 2 takes their sophomores friends off campus, they try not to influence them. “Sure, it can be like a quick pick me up, like getting boba, or getting a cute little drink, but it’s not necessary for your high school experience. Just wait until senior year where [sic] you’re less stressed to go off campus.”
The Policy
Before 1992, only seniors had campus leave privileges, “in accordance with the late Headmaster Dan Ayrault’s belief that seniors need the freedom to organize their own time in preparation for college,” describes a May 1992 Tatler article. But then, for a brief period of time between 1992 and 1995, juniors were granted campus leave privileges.
A committee composed of students, faculty, staff, parents, and administrators met to rethink the rule after complaints from years prior, and decided to grant juniors the ability to leave campus as well. Unlike seniors, they also had to sign out and attend advisory. Alas, the policy fell three years later when the same committee revoked its decision, noting the inability to monitor the policy and concerns from parents on student safety and academics. From the revision birthed $5000 from the Parents and Guardians Association to establish new “student centers.”
Everyone interviewed all agree that the current Lakeside administration doesn’t do a very good job of enforcing the seniors-only rule. Hannah explains that they don’t enforce it as much as they should, pointing out “I didn’t use to go on campus as an underclassman because I was [scared] I’m going to get in trouble, and then I learned that no one cares.”
“You have to maintain a thin veneer of plausible deniability; maybe hide your food if you’re like checking back in, … but other than that they don’t care and I feel like they probably should honestly because I’ve seen some of my friends just like walk into class with a drink and I’m like ‘I think that’s going toa draw a lot of suspicion.’”
She also points out another flaw in the system: the check in and out system. “It’s not a priority to stop in Bliss and sign out,” she explains. “Once a year, they give us an announcement, … and then that’s [the] last they say it. So I think people maybe know that rule, but you can basically pretend you don’t because they never tell you again.”
However, Hannah thinks Admin shouldn’t be too stringent, saying “if kids are facing disciplinary infractions for walking into class with drinks, we’ve gone way too far.”
Junior 2 points out, “I wonder why they don’t change the rule. I understand sophomores and freshmen stay on campus because they’re underclassmen … but I just feel [they should] include the juniors right into that rule.”
”I don’t get it. Because if you can drive to school already, it makes sense that you [can] leave.”
So why have the rule in the first place? Junior 2 acknowledges “Maybe it’s to give the seniors more privilege … [and] there’s definitely also the safety aspect of it, knowing when their students are on and off campus.” Junior 1 agrees, mentioning the rule exists for “obvious safety reasons,” and “having that rule be there will make less people try to go off campus,” even if ultimately students still violate it.
