Accidents prompt districts to end off-campus lunches

A number of districts on Long Island in New York recently have closed their campuses at lunchtime because of growing concern over traffic accidents and in some cases, truancy. The 11,000-student Smithtown district in Suffolk County stopped allowing students to go out for lunch in November, the day after a lunchtime car accident that killed two Smithtown West seniors and a third teenager. Three weeks ago, the 2,600-student West Hempstead district in Nassau County suspended its open-campus policy after two high school students were fatally injured in a lunchtime car accident. A third district, Jericho, closed its campus after a high school student was crushed by a vehicle in the parking lot in 2005. State Assemblyman Michael N. Gianaris has proposed legislation that would prohibit students from driving during school lunch periods.

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