First Nashville Covenant School, then Highland Park High School, and now Evanston Township High School. School shootings seem like they are happening every other day, so is our school prepared for something as heavy as that? 

These days in school, special attention needs to be paid to school security. For instance, not everyone who enters the building scans their IDs. This could put the school in danger if Security had no idea who just walked into the building.

“Some people don’t have to scan their IDs and the security guards don’t do anything to stop people,” sophomore Mercy Bosibori said. 

As far as Security is concerned, some students do not see them as effective as they could be.

“They’re always yelling about something,” Freshman Layan Bajalan said. “But I think they are helping us keep this school safe…they’re doing their job…but not when they keep barging in the bathroom when I take too long.”

Everyone is a critic. It’s easy to pick at something at the surface, but when the topic of security is looked at up close, Principal Dr. Edwards gave his insight.  

“We have a pretty thorough identification system of students that may be disaffected from school; they’re not connected to the building. So first and foremost, maintaining the mental fitness of our students is a primary concern. Secondly, we have a great group of safety team members who work to build relationships with kids, but at the same time, also identify kids who they think are having a bad day or a bad week; and they bring that information to us so we can follow up.”

What about metal detectors and dogs, you ask? Schools shouldn’t look like a prison. Bringing in an entire police force would be extremely unnecessary. So, here is how Edwards responds to that.

“There’s a school out there where metal detectors and weapon-sniffing dogs are the answer, but I think a lot of students and staff would agree that we don’t want Niles North to look like a maximum-security prison. I’ve worked in buildings that have had metal detectors and lines extend a block and a half long in the morning, but we already have first-period tardy issues, so it’s really it’s dependent on all of us. If a student notices something odd, we want them to feel free to report it to us anonymously, or not.”

Do you think students should be more trained to prepare for a school shooting that could happen at any second, anywhere? Simulating our school shooter drills like a real event would be a great start, not just in the middle of the period when the announcements say “prepare for lockdown,” but in the middle of a passing period, for example, when students would be caught off-guard.

Here is what Edwards had to say about that.

“Our policy’s on the drill- so drill detectors are critically important. We’ve had an active shooter drill already, but that was in homeroom, so what we want to do is to have an active shooter drill that’s not homeroom, which shows us what it’s like to go in a lockdown during a passing period. Do kids know what to do? We did share with staff all of the areas of the building, that in the event of an active shooter, this is what you would do if you were in that particular area. We have to train students, so we’ll do another drill before the end of the year, but it’s not gonna be during the 10-minute homeroom where everybody knows what’s coming.”

“There’s also something that came out of the Highland Park lockdown that I thought was really interesting, and that’s providing food, water, and blankets in every classroom in the event that a lockdown lasts multiple hours, so that’s something we’re looking for in every room. I know this is going to sound overly simplistic, but if you see something out of the ordinary, it has come upon students and staff to report it, even if you don’t necessarily think it’s worth our while to go investigate.”

Are you wondering how the new building addition adds to our school safety? Here is how Edwards responds.

“And finally, the idea behind the addition out front was to make the entrance safer, so there will be a separate entrance for students, a separate entrance for staff, and a separate entrance for visitors. That way, we’re not parading people through the guts of the building. The counselors’ office, deans; we’re all going to be over there.”

Even though school safety can be all about planning, architecture, and employing security personnel, the people in the building can be effective in maintaining safety as well. For instance, students should continue informing authorities about possible threats with some level of certainty. However, they should not cause an unreasonable spread of panic at school based on rumors, as “friends of friends” is less likely to be reliable.

Our school isn’t perfect. However, Niles North is working hard to keep the building a safe environment for everyone. It may be easy to poke holes here and there and blame staff, but rest assured, progress for protection is in the works. We don’t know when the next assault on a school will happen, but we should know that people in the building are dedicated to protecting our school, whether others believe it or not.