Santa Monica : Report on Closed Campus

Residents living near Santa Monica High School say peace has been restored to their neighborhood since the school started a closed-campus program last fall, according to a report from the superintendent’s office.

“The objective of diminishing rowdy lunchtime, off-campus behavior by students appears to have been fully met,” said the report, which was presented to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education on Monday.

The program requires students to obtain a permit in order to leave campus during lunch. A parent must sign a permission slip in front of a high school administrator for the permit to be issued. Of the 2,700 students at the school, 1,729 have permits.

But more students on campus during lunch has translated into long lines for food and a growing trash problem. The district hired three additional food service workers to try to meet the demand. Student clubs have tackled the litter problem but their “efforts have not resulted in an acceptably clean campus,” the report said.