Ammendments: Reform or Refrain?

In this second unit of our Humanities Class Argument, Abduction, we learned more about the Constitution of the United States, as well as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Our class went out on a Field Experience to the immigration courts downtown to get a better idea of the process, and we later watched the movie 13th by Ava DuVernay to see how the 13th Amendment to the constitution has impacted African Americans over time. For this Action Project, we had to take a look at our school's student handbook and argue for our own changes to be made to a specific part of it. Below is my argument on how our open campus policy should be changed to allow students more freedom.

The Student Handbook describes important information about Global Citizenship Experience Lab School, including information regarding student conduct. While I do agree with the majority of the rules stated in the Handbook, there is a rule that I want to amend regarding the open campus policy. The rule states that “Students who leave campus during lunch must travel with a charged, working cell phone, and they must agree to answer any call received from the School. During lunch, students may travel only by foot.”

Franklin Park Zoo, African Lion, 2020

This captive lion has no autonomy compared to its wild brethren. It relies on its keepers to feed it at certain times, and a very limited space to roam. This serves as an analogy to the current open campus policy.

I believe that this is an unjust rule because it states that students are only allowed to travel by foot when going to lunch. Not by bike, not by bus, not by train, only by foot. GCE is all about student autonomy, personal responsibility, and about being a Global Citizen. I disagree with this rule because it contradicts the desired autonomy and responsibility that is outlined on page six of the Student Handbook, which reads: “A citizen is an individual, possessing personal integrity, freedom to determine his or her own principles and enact them in the world...The student is recognized as a whole person, manifest in a life of thinking, being, and doing.” Additionally, students are often late to class when returning from open campus, or have very little time to eat, so my proposal would allow them to have to travel less and have more time to eat.

I have rewritten this rule as a formal syllogism:
Premise: Students are allowed to go out for lunch period-open campus.
Premise: Students can only travel on foot during this time.
Conclusion: Therefore, students will not be late back to class if they can only walk to wherever they’re going to eat.

My proposed amendment to the Student Handbook would allow students more autonomy and responsibility when going out for lunch, and cause them to have to exercise time management and be accountable for the consequences of being late. Abusing this extended privilege by skipping school or returning consistently late to class could result in an in-school suspension. It would allow for students to have more integrity and enact their principals of GCE citizenship in the world. My fellow students agree; when I asked a fellow junior about the topic and my proposed amendment, he agreed with me and additionally agreed that he'd sign off on it, stating, “I think it’d be a really good idea; it’d let us have a lot more options for food outside of school and keep people from just leaving at the same time.”

I have also written an amended formal syllogism of the existing open campus rule:
Premise: Students are allowed to leave the school during lunch to obtain food from elsewhere.
Premise: Students are expected to exercise a certain level of autonomy and responsibility.
Conclusion: Students are able to exercise their autonomy and freedom to travel using public transportation during open campus, as long as they return on time. 

This proposed amendment relates to the The Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states that “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” No other law supersedes our Constitutional rights, which are in this case our rights to be autonomous and responsible for ourselves as students of GCE. GCE’s Constitution is its Student Handbook; therefore no rule within the Handbook should contradict the overarching themes of the Handbook and of GCE as a school. I believe that this proposed amendment would increase the opportunities for students to practice and demonstrate the desired behaviors outlined in the Student Handbook.


In conclusion, I thought that this Action Project was actually pretty interesting to work through. Coming up with our own ideas for changes to the student handbook is a very interesting concept for a project, and I thought it was really creative.