Have you ever slept over at your friend's house? I believe many of you have done so. However, have you ever slept at your school (except those who live in dormitories)? In American high schools, schools provide students opportunities to sleep in the school. This is called the lock-in. In most schools, this is done sometimes in March or after summer vacation had started.

In some lock-ins, dinner is provided. However, in some, dinner isn’t provided. So, students will need to make sure whether dinner is provided. Usually, most schools do provide dinner, and they have a large barbeque party in the school lawn or the school cafeteria. Students are usually able to fill their stomach with a tasty dinner. After that, students play games that the student council has organized. In some schools, these games are used to allocate extra budget for each grade. So, some grade representatives often require their classmates to go to win this extra budget. However, sometimes many students feel bored and try to go home. Unfortunately, they can’t.

If you come to the lock-in, you can’t leave unless an emergency happened. Students are locked in the school until the next morning. So if you feel that the lock-in isn’t fun in the middle of it, you can’t leave unless you secretly escape the school. All schools utilize sign-in sheets to keep track of who came and who didn’t. Also, teachers won’t let students in after the designated time (usually between 8~9:30 p.m.), so students need to decide quickly whether they want to go or not. Finally, students won’t able to get out after they signed in.

Although some students feel that the games are really boring, they say that the overall lock-in is fun. This is because the highlights of the lock-in…free time! After the games are done, schools give free time to students until next morning. In free time, students are allowed to do anything except actions that causes trouble. In some cases, teachers will not allow computer games and phones in the lock-in at all. Students are sometimes required to turn their cell phones in as they sign in. Many students (especially boys) will complain about that, and they become angry. In most cases, students talk with their friends past midnight or play sports and go to sleep whenever they’re tired. Students need to bring their own sleeping bags and pillows, as schools will not provide them. However, some student just doesn’t sleep for the entire lock-in until the next morning. When they go home, they sleep for the entire day. After a frantic day, the school is usually in a mess, and the students go home. Some sleepy students just ignore the teachers’ commands to wake up, and they keep sleeping. Usually, they get detention and have to help the janitors clean up the school. After a while, the school returns to its normal state, leaving no trace of the lock-in.