It’s always in a school’s agenda to ensure the safety of the students and staff at all times. As of this school year, Glenbard South has enacted a few new security protocols to better protect the students. But the question is whether or not the students feel any safer.

Before this year, the school IDs were used to check out library books. Some bus drivers use IDs to make sure students are getting on the right bus and only allow students on once they’ve shown them the little cards. The IDs are also used by the security guards to ensure that only seniors are leaving campus during lunch and for early dismissal.

Now, our school IDs serve a bigger purpose: access into and out of the school. There are only two entrances in which students are allowed to go through, both of which are now surrounded by teachers and staff every morning. Students are required to show their respective IDs to the staff members standing by before they are allowed inside the school.

Regarding the changes, Areeba Altaf, a junior at South, says that she personally feels safer knowing that students are being checked before and after school, especially after everything that’s been happening in other places around the country.

Ms. Kosak reassures this by saying that the procedures are “just another way to make sure that the people that are coming into the building are the people that belong here.”

Although, Glenbard South Senior, Hafsa Rasheed, feels differently about the whole process. When a student doesn’t have their IDs with them, they are to get a temporary ID for the day and those are the equivalent of Hero passes. A student forgetting their ID three times would warrant detention. Hafsa feels that “the security measures are a little unnecessary if we’re getting punished for not bringing them” and that “the ID policy doesn’t add that much to the safety of the school.”

Understandably, a lot of students aren’t too happy with the consequences of not having an ID. It’s not an unknown situation that someone may forget their ID at home, but the consequences are put in place so that students realize how important it is to monitor who enters the building.

Along with the ID policy, the school also implemented another rule: students are unable to open doors without a teacher or staff member present. The doors are now monitored, so if someone were to open a door unmonitored, it’d be a matter of time before they’d be talked to in the main office and face possible consequences. The overall policy is a way to ensure that students aren’t accidentally letting in people that aren’t supposed to be in the school. 

Additionally, it ensures that seniors that leave for off-campus lunch only leave through door #4. Assistant principal, Mr. Nielsen says that, “In the past, maybe what could’ve happened was a senior or any student to make a poor choice and put a rock in the door, this limits that because students can only leave through one door. The new procedures that have come about allow the school to monitor those doors.”

And for the overall door monitoring issue, sophomore Asma Irfanullah believes it unnecessary to have such restrictions on students being unable to open doors. She says that no one would willingly open doors to strangers and that those that do open the doors unmonitored, don’t usually do it for the purpose of letting anyone in. Regardless of the reason, students that open the doors are called down to the main office to be talked to and Asma deems it unreasonable. She says that they should “keep the cameras, but not the rule”. She’s always felt safe at school and the additional rules make her feel more constrained.

With the new changes with this year’s policies, students who’ve already felt safe in school aren’t going to like the consequences of having to follow yet another rule. But in the end, the safety of the students is what’s important as well as creating that secure environment for them to feel safe too. A study from the National Center for Education Statistics showed that about 5 percent of students between the ages of 12 and 18 had reported that they had been afraid of some sort of attack or harm to the school. It’s not a high percentage, but all students regardless should feel safe in a learning environment. And Glenbard South is taking the right initiative to help this happen.

“We will constantly evaluate what’s in the best interest of keeping kids safe and adapt to that. We can’t learn if we don’t feel safe.” Any students that feel that the changes have no impact on their personal safety could definitely talk to Mr. Nielsen to have a conversation and provide additional feedback and what they feel would best adhere to their security.