Will Locking the School Keep Students Safe?

Implemented this school year, the school decided to now lock the doors to the office/ 2nd set of doors. In previous years the 2nd set of doors have always been locked, but if guests were to come into the building during school hours they would walk into the unlocked office doors to get inside the building. This year the school changed that. The office doors are now locked and there is a buzzer system near the office where the office ladies have to speak to you through, and where they decide to unlock the doors for you or not.

Senior Hunter Price, who has a hybrid class 1st block and uses the buzzer system often said, “I think it’s a good idea for everything that’s going on today, but I don’t think it makes us safer because I think they buzz just about everyone in. Also, there are times when the door is unlocked so I don’t have to ring the buzzer.” Hunter also said, “I think it was a good idea but there are some changes that could make it better.”

While talking to our school resource officer, Dace Richardson, about how this system will help our school, he said “The new lock system is our way to make Waukee High School more secure. Before this was implemented there were way too my access points to the school. This could present a safety issue for everyone in the building. Our hope with the new system is to make school staff and students feel safer in their learning environment.”

When asked, our high school’s principal, Cary Justmann, what the hope for the new buzzer system is and he responded “The only major difference is that to get into the main entrances, we are greeting everyone as a safety measure. In an attempt to make it easy on our students, we’re trying to get students in and out quickly at the beginning of blocks, but for visitors, we ask that they identify themselves and the purpose of their visit. I think it’s a good idea because we want to make sure we’re taking every step that we can to keep our school safe from visitors that are not wanted in our building.” Justmann also said, “it does add some responsibilities to our office staff.”