School safety brought into question
School Resource Officer Corey Ray never has a “typical” school day. His day is dedicated to one task: ensuring the safety of the students and staff on campus.
“My main thing is that a shooter does not come. that’s why I’m not staying in my office, why I’m visible, because I need the students. I’m just one pair of eyes, and I need you all not to be afraid to say ‘Officer Ray’ and tell me what’s happening. The more eyes I have, the better,” Ray said.
Despite the efforts of officers and administrators, the national spotlight has recently shifted towards the darker sides of school safety. Attacks, such as those that occurred at Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary, Virginia Tech, and recently, Umpqua Community College in Oregon have highlighted the issue of weapons and trespassers on school campuses nationally and prompted debate over the effectiveness of security measures.
In 2015, there were a total of 52 instances of gun violence on school campuses, that have killed 30 and injured 53 people, according to a recent report by RT News. According to The Washington Post, since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Dec. 2012, roughly one account of gun violence on a school campus occurs per week.
According to principal Amy Rhoney, the large size of Roberson makes security a more difficult issue to tackle. Precautions, such as a buzzer system to let visitors in the main door, additional security cameras, and more security guards have been discussed in the past; however, Rhoney believes that the best way to address the issue is by adding preemptive deterrents, including a stop-arm gate at the back entrance of the school.
“Additional security cameras are great , but that’s not a preventative. We don’t have someone that sits and watches security cameras all day. What I would love is some added security measures at the back entrance, because we don’t want to have these [cafeteria] doors locked for our students, but anyone can just access the back, an automated stop-arm gate or an additional security guard at the back that would monitor who comes in and out. That would be awesome,” Rhoney said.
Ray agrees with the need for security in the back of the school.
“What I would love to see is one way in and one way out, but that’s kind of impossible with the size of the school and the way it was built. My biggest concern right now is that we have so many entrances, and we have so many unlocked doors. Even though we have cameras on the entrances, my fear is that someone could come in without us noticing that they’re here,” Ray said.
Last month, threats were written on the wall of a bathroom that implied the potential for a shooting the next day at school. While there was reason for the administration to believe that the threat was not constructed as most viable threats are, parents were informed of the situation, and the next day additional police officers were stationed around campus for added security. Rhoney feels that in the future, student awareness is the way to catch potential danger.
“Usually people that choose to do something like that have a plan and have communicated with somebody, and we have to take everything seriously. Even to the extent of overreporting something, we take every threat extremely seriously,” Rhoney said. “But our students are so familiar with the setting, you guys are the first line of defense.”
Deputy Sandy Edmunds, the Student Resource Officer for the Roberson district elementary schools, hopes that threats, both locally and nationally, do not scare students from attending school.
“Stuff happens anywhere, and our country is more safe than most countries. I would not like to think that kids were afraid of going to school, but they should be aware. You don’t want it to fill up your whole mind, your whole day,” Edmunds said.
But despite protocols in place at Roberson, secretary Donna Greene doesn’t believe it is enough yet..
“The front door is left open constantly and doors are unlocked everywhere around here. We are one of the few schools in the county that does not have a buzzer system to buzz somebody in,” Greene said.
Senior Max Crownover believes that the school is doing enough to address security issues..
“There is a difference between keeping students safe and overburdening. We already have pretty high surveillance throughout the school outside and inside, we have an officer on campus, and we have the security guard sitting outside. If we’re high schoolers, they should actually trust us, not just treat us like children,” Crownover said.
According to members of the school faculty and staff, class change and lunch presents additional safety concerns. Currently, students are allowed to walk outside to class, meaning that outside doors must be left unlocked throughout the day. Rhoney believes this is necessary to combatting overcrowded hallways and ease traffic flow.
“We are keeping a lot more of our doors locked, and we do have a keypad on the math door, but it wouldn’t make sense to put a keypad on these other doors because students couldn’t get in or out. Plus, I think our students like being outside between classes and at lunch,” Rhoney said.
Security guard Malcolm McCarson agrees that the size of the school makes his job more difficult, but feels that overall, there is not much that he would change.
“I would believe that I would change some of the exits a little bit more. You got a lot of different areas, people coming in this way and that way in the morning, but [safety] is pretty good. It’s such a big campus, but you really can’t have much more security on the outside. People are pretty respectful, and they try to check in and try to tell me,” McCarson said.
In response to the surge of attacks on campuses nationally, schools across the country have instigated new measures to further protect students and faculty, including arming teachers and teaching students to attack an intruder rather than hiding. Crownover disagrees with the idea.
“That’s ignorant, you’re not going to do anything by giving a teacher a gun, you’re going to do something by changing gun laws or adding more cameras or teaching students to be less violent. We just live in a very violent society, Crownover said.
Edmunds feels differently.
“It’s the fight or flight syndrome: are you going to fight to survive or run away from it? You never know what’s going to happen, but anything you can do to save your life or the life of somebody else is a plus. To have kids know that, or at least think of that, to me is always an option. I don’t think people should be scared, but they should be vigilant. You should always be aware, and anything that looks suspicious should be reported, question anyone on campus that you don’t know,” Edmunds said.