March 16, 2018
On Feb. 14, 2018, the United States witnessed yet again another tragic shooting– and this time at a high school. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida suffered 17 losses and faced many injuries. Since 2003, there has been over 300 school shootings where there has been harm brought to students and teachers on campus. One of the most recent shootings in Florida has brought to the attention of the public the dangers of guns and what people can do to make a safer school environment. Along with the fight against guns, people have began taking more precautions at schools to avoid another devastating shooting.
“I was very upset (about the shooting),” school security guard Tony Sullivan said. “I was upset that someone would go to a school and actually shoot it up with the students and everything.”
The security crew at the high school has made several accommodations to make Carlsbad High School a safe place for all the students and teachers inside. These security measures make our school a safe environment and help avoid dangerous situations.
“We have things in place,” Sullivan said. “We have a staff of seven to nine campus supervisors, we have cameras here, we are always controlling the gates. We are all over the place. We do not let the public come in without being announced. In other words, they have to stop in the front office and sign in before they come into our school grounds. When they sign in, they get a badge. If the badge is on, no problem but if there is someone here that we may not recognize and they don’t have a badge that says they are a visitor here, we approach them and we ask, ‘Can we help you? Why are you here?’. And then we point them back up to the office and that’s basically the protocol and procedure we do.”
By having these strict protocols, our school is under protection from outsiders because of the experienced staff and the need for announcement upon entering the school. With this said, the security staff has been on high alert because of the inclining number of shootings in America.
“It’s like anything,” Sullivan said. “Like for instance if there is a lot of accidents on a corner, they will finally put up a street light. Things are always going to be added but there is a lot already done so that (the students) should feel safe here because I think my crew does a really good job of doing what we do here. Added wise, I think we are a little more visible and we are really just always looking even at our own students. Just watching everyone I guess a little closer.”
Sophomore Buffy Howe expresses how she feels about the school environment and her experience as a student in high school with the recent events in the news concerning shootings in academic setting.
“I do feel safe at school,” Howe said. “I have never felt truly dangered or threatened. We are truly blessed to live here and have the ability to attend school without having to live in fear. However, something that might make me feel safer is knowing that there is a set plan in the rare event of something actually happening.”
