Throughout the recent weeks, school shootings have been on a rise. There have also been several threats in the area about such shootings. None of these threats were credible, but even the most minuscule of threats like these have to be taken seriously. These threats are not funny, and are a very serious matter.
The high school in the past weeks has taken the time out of the school day to prepare for the worst case scenario.
Two weeks ago, Hughson High School went through a lock-down drill. This drill was for security measures, and to refresh the students memories of the procedure. During a lock-down drill the teachers turn off the lights, take off the lock block, shut the blinds, and get all the students to sit against the wall. This in turn makes the class room hard to get into, makes it look empty, and hopefully makes the intruder less likely to try and go into the room. Max Mankins, a senior at Hughson High, said, “If there was a school shooting I would either hide in the classroom or if I’m outside I would jump the gate and run.” By going through the simple lock-down drills that take schools five minutes to do, the students’ minds are kept fresh just in case of the worst scenario.
Throughout the past 20 years schools have been innovating new ways to keep kids safe. Emily Yarbrough, a senior at Hughson High said, “The school has lots of safety measures to make sure all the students are safe.” In this they added a system called a lock block a very long time ago. A lock block system in schools is a safety mechanism that allows classroom doors to remain unlocked for easy access but can quickly be locked from the inside during an emergency to secure the room.
Hughson High School has also implemented some adjustments to campus security for the school. Some of these safety measures include the school’s fence. JC Lupercio, a senior at Hughson High said, “The school has good measures that they do in case of a lock down. They have the new fence, we also have our campus supervisors, and we have the loud speakers so they can announce to the students.” This fence allows students to enter the school during the beginning of the school, and then throughout the rest of the day until the end of school, people trying to enter or leave the school only have one place to go, which is through the school’s office.
Another safety measure that was added in the past five to ten years was the campus security guards. The school used to only have one campus security guard, but recently they have added another to help with the rising student population.
