Relaxed Campus Rules Cause Students to Feel Unsafe
The Pony Express Editorial Board
The Pony Express Editorial Board
As students, we are required by law to attend school. Although it's supposed to be a place to grow our love for learning, fears grow over security issues and the looming worries of the school coming under attack. For the 180 mandated school days required to attend classes, the minute we walk into the classroom we accept that we may not be as safe as we once thought.
This year to date, the United States has had around 288 school shootings and most recently Lincoln High School, which is within San Jose Unified, had a false tip that a school shooting was occurring on campus. Although promptly responded to by law enforcement, the scary reality students may have to face was brought to light once again.
At Pioneer, many students have a zero period and get out early. Each student who leaves after 4th or 5th period is given a pass, issued by the school, stating that they are allowed to leave campus while classes are still in session. Although the initial idea seems effective, the enforcement of these passes has been an issue on campus more recently. At the beginning of the year, passes were checked, however that has since tapered off, allowing students to leave campus even if they have classes afterward. Our campus has been deemed a “closed campus,” meaning students are not permitted to leave campus without written permission. However, quite the opposite has been happening. Although the school has felt that they are checking passes, we often see students walking off campus with their friends and without passes during lunch and coming back with food without being stopped by administrators. The question is simple: how can our campus be safe when even the supervision of students is lacking?
On Oct. 31, the fire alarm went off towards the end of fifth period and few people took action to evacuate. It could have been a potential school shooter in an attempt to lure us out of classrooms before opening fire, which is exactly what happened in the devastating Parkland shooting that took place in 2018.
Prior to the campus shutdown in March 2020, we observed much more supervision of the campus, including in the student parking lot. Although not a huge change in the amount of campus supervisors, student safety is beginning to come into question with ditching becoming more common. Along with our campus supervisors we have our school resource officers, which between all of them should be more than enough to patrol our campus and keep it safe.
With so many changes put in place this year already, it’s not that we want new changes to ensure student safety, but we want the protocols already in place to be enforced. When every student is issued a parking permit, they agree to not sit or loiter in their vehicle during school hours. But everyday there are students sitting in their cars during break and lunch, with no repercussions. We don’t need the level of security that would be seen at an airport, like x-ray machines and metal detectors, but we need to feel safe and know that the administration is doing everything they can to keep us safe.
With the campus passes already in place for students without a 5th or 6th period, having staff checking passes consistently would create a much safer environment on campus for all students. It’s a simple way to ensure student safety by making sure people roaming campus are supposed to be there. In the student parking lot, consistent checking of campus passes and parking permits on cars would ensure that cars are from the school community rather than others. It is on our campus, community and administration to do better and make sure that rules are being upheld and followed by all to keep our campus safe.
This year to date, the United States has had around 288 school shootings and most recently Lincoln High School, which is within San Jose Unified, had a false tip that a school shooting was occurring on campus. Although promptly responded to by law enforcement, the scary reality students may have to face was brought to light once again.
At Pioneer, many students have a zero period and get out early. Each student who leaves after 4th or 5th period is given a pass, issued by the school, stating that they are allowed to leave campus while classes are still in session. Although the initial idea seems effective, the enforcement of these passes has been an issue on campus more recently. At the beginning of the year, passes were checked, however that has since tapered off, allowing students to leave campus even if they have classes afterward. Our campus has been deemed a “closed campus,” meaning students are not permitted to leave campus without written permission. However, quite the opposite has been happening. Although the school has felt that they are checking passes, we often see students walking off campus with their friends and without passes during lunch and coming back with food without being stopped by administrators. The question is simple: how can our campus be safe when even the supervision of students is lacking?
On Oct. 31, the fire alarm went off towards the end of fifth period and few people took action to evacuate. It could have been a potential school shooter in an attempt to lure us out of classrooms before opening fire, which is exactly what happened in the devastating Parkland shooting that took place in 2018.
Prior to the campus shutdown in March 2020, we observed much more supervision of the campus, including in the student parking lot. Although not a huge change in the amount of campus supervisors, student safety is beginning to come into question with ditching becoming more common. Along with our campus supervisors we have our school resource officers, which between all of them should be more than enough to patrol our campus and keep it safe.
With so many changes put in place this year already, it’s not that we want new changes to ensure student safety, but we want the protocols already in place to be enforced. When every student is issued a parking permit, they agree to not sit or loiter in their vehicle during school hours. But everyday there are students sitting in their cars during break and lunch, with no repercussions. We don’t need the level of security that would be seen at an airport, like x-ray machines and metal detectors, but we need to feel safe and know that the administration is doing everything they can to keep us safe.
With the campus passes already in place for students without a 5th or 6th period, having staff checking passes consistently would create a much safer environment on campus for all students. It’s a simple way to ensure student safety by making sure people roaming campus are supposed to be there. In the student parking lot, consistent checking of campus passes and parking permits on cars would ensure that cars are from the school community rather than others. It is on our campus, community and administration to do better and make sure that rules are being upheld and followed by all to keep our campus safe.