With story after story about school shootings, how do we, as a student body, feel safe on our campus?

The Spellbinder conducted a poll in which they asked students about their perspective on their safety on campus. After asking if they feel safe, unsafe, or neither safe or unsafe, the majority of students said they don’t feel safe or unsafe. Jesus Mendez, a senior at MCHS, said, “It depends at what time of day it is… after sundown is when the campus actually feels scary.” Furthermore, after asking if SAC security is quick to respond after being called, the vast majority of students answered ‘no.’ In addition, The Spellbinder tried contacting one of SAC security’s faculty, Lieutenant Baker. One of the questions asked was “Why do we have a curtain as a door in one of the restrooms?” We heard no response. Adding to the fear in students, a number of doors in teachers’ classroom doors don’t lock from the inside. This makes it more dangerous for our students if something were to happen.

Furthermore, The Spellbinder asked a couple of questions to the school’s principal, Mr. Voight. The first question was, “Are there any protocols that the school takes if a school shooting were to happen? If so, what are they?” He responded: “Yes students and staff have been trained to either run, fight or hide. If you are in a class and hear gunshots, teachers close and lock the doors and turn out the lights and students and staff move quietly to the back of the room. If you are outside in the quad you run or hide. If you are confronted with no other alternative, fight.” We also asked him about his biggest concern about the student’s safety. “Obviously, we have an unusual school as we are part of a college campus. Our open campus is my biggest concern,” he states.

Additionally, because we go to school on a campus that is so open and public, anyone can come in, making it more prone to something to happen. Not only is it just Middle College, but we also share a campus with older college students that are able to get licensed to get a gun themselves. Nowadays, we need to be conscious of our surroundings and of our peers. In recent news, a school shooting happened on Tuesday, March 20 at Great Mills High School in Maryland. The alleged shooter, Wyatt Rollins, shot two students. However, at the scene, school officer Blaine Gaskill was quick to act and was able to stop Rollins. Rollins was later pronounced dead. This is a perfect example of how school police, and or security, should be fast to react to any given situation to guarantee the security and safety of the students. According to CNN research, this has been the 17th school shooting this year.

In light of all the school shootings around America, it’s important to be aware of the amount of safety at MCHS. It is also important to understand what protocols one can take during a heated moment like this. One protocol that we have at this school already are the security cameras. At Santa Ana College, there are security cameras that are being watched by the safety officers and the footage is being sent to their office. This will help students feel safer because this is an open campus.

In sum, although we do have security on our campus we need more to feel safe.