Are we safe?
New safety feature for OHS hybrid and PSEO students
Every year the OHS student body takes a survey asking the students if they feel safe. Considering that the community passed a $77.9 million referendum in November of 2015 to improve the buildings of the school district and improve security, one would think that things here at OHS would change. Yes, there have been attempts to control the security threats here, but the truth is that OHS is hard to secure.
Students still do not feel 100 percent safe here at OHS. The attempts that the school has made are good, but without the students’ support, the school will never be safe. Whether it is opening the doors to let people in, or opening windows in the bathrooms, the actions the student body dictates whether or not our school is safe.
We can blame the school officials as much as we want, but in the end we are the ones who determine the safety of our school
We can blame the school officials as much as we want, but in the end we are the ones who determine the safety of our school. In a recent survey when students were asked if they had let other people in unauthorized doors, 87.5 percent said that yes they had.
There have been a few cases here at OHS where a lot of the students have not felt safe, and the school district has taken action to try and improve that. For example, there was a bomb threat on April 15, 2016, and shortly after, backpacks were checked and now are not allowed outside of students lockers without pre-approval. Some people believe this is too harsh as sometimes it is inconvenient to carry all of your materials around. However, even small protections like this can help make the school a safer place.
Through a Magnet Poll on social media, OHS students were asked if they were starting to feel safer with the new security measure. Students responded that 60 percent of replied with an overwhelming yes. Clearly, these extra measures are helping to put students’ minds at ease to a certain degree.
The real threat comes from the student body; it is up to us to make the building more secure. Do not let people in the building- even if they are your friend. Do not let people you do not know come in with you. Every time we let someone in a door that is locked, we are making it more acceptable for someone else to do the same. Do not do things that could potentially make the school more unsafe than it already is. How are the millions of dollars that our taxpayers are investing into our school worth it if we are not following the rules they have put into place? Protocols may be inconvenient, but they must be here for a reason.
With schools being a safer place, it allows the students to learn more freely, and to concentrate more on their schoolwork rather than outside distractions. This is good for the school district, but no matter how much money is spent on security the student body needs to think about what keeps us safe.
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