Is this Sheriff Joe's gulag called Tent City or perhaps are we confusing it with a high school in Mesa Original Article High-schoolers adjust to lunchtime confinement By Beth Lucas, Tribune August 23, 2005 Seniors dutifully hold up color-coded badges as they pass through tall metal gates. Campus police ride bicycles through the cafeterias. Underclassmen try to jump the fence or pass fake IDs. Six have been caught. Its not jail. Its lunchtime in the Mesa Unified School District. Starting this school year, only seniors can walk or drive off campus for lunch. The open-door lunch policy changed after two Dobson High School students were killed in a December lunchtime car crash. Skyline High School continues to restrict all of its students at lunchtime. The policy, for some, establishes a "prisonlike" atmosphere. "This sucks. It looks like a jail," one Red Mountain High School student grumbled to friends while running to class. "Its so boring." "The gates are sort of an eyesore," said Mesa High School junior Matthew Barnes, 16. "I dont like it. It works OK for keeping the students inside. Theres not much we can do to make it better." The school district, though, insists its nothing like prison, and is just meant to keep students safer not only from car crashes but from fights, drugs and other off-campus abuses. "Think of it as a gated community," said Red Mountain principal Gerry Slemmer, "without the association fees. Theyll get used to it. Theyll be fine." At Dobson High School, there is a noticeable difference as students are enclosed only by a 2-foot cement wall meant as a border, rather than the gates at other schools. Principal Steve Green said students have been abiding by the new rules despite not being fenced in. "We have trust in them to work with us and do the right thing," he said. "Kids here are very understanding." While students complained about long lines and switching from fast food to cafeteria cuisine, principals watched with sighs of relief as slower lines of cars calmly exited parking lots and streets surrounding campuses were void of kids smoking or mixing with adults. Senior Jerard Brown, 17, said its been safer as he leisurely leaves campus now for lunch. "A lot of sophomores and juniors . . . these are the ones who are dangerous drivers," he said. More work needs to be done to keep sophomores and juniors happy, school officials said. Many schools are waiting for shade covers to arrive for students who choose to eat outside. Right now, the students bunch in whatever shade they can find. Westwood High School is building an outside amphitheater for student-led entertainment. Red Mountain used $12,000 in student funds to buy two plasma-screen TVs to show sports, plans to buy a juke box, and dressed up its cafeteria with red-and-blue neon lights to create a restaurant-style atmosphere. Red Mountain and Mountain View high schools have one lunch period. All other schools divide into two lunches because of limited cafeteria space. The school board hopes to address that problem by making the cafeterias larger and more comfortable kind of like a Starbucks for students if a bond issue on the November ballot passes. Contact Beth Lucas by email, or phone (480) 898-6373