By: Maria LaMagna <[email protected]>

For senior Sarah Harbison, this school year opened with an unpleasant surprise. “On the second day of school, I was walking outside to class and (Administrative Assistant Doug) Bird said, ‘you’re not going to be allowed to walk outside anymore.’ Later on, they made the announcement to the school.”

This new restriction was one of several security measures administrators have implemented for this school year. The team of administrators who decided on these changes included Principal John Williams.

According to Williams, the Carmel Police said the most dangerous aspect of this school now is having visitors frequently entering and exiting. “With the recent occurrence of school violence around the nation, it’s important for the safety of our students to limit the folks who come in and out of the building,” Williams said.

Williams said this change was also partially because he received calls from parents who were worried about the ease with which they themselves entered this school. “With a school this large,” Williams said, “we need to keep everyone accounted for.”

Williams said many of these measures are largely about prevention of a tragedy and not waiting until it’s too late. “I hope that (students) realize that in order to have the best assurance of safety, we have to be pro-active…It’s about the lowest common denominator. If there’s a one in 1,000 chance that (an intruder) comes in, we need to try to prevent that one chance.”

Assistant Principal John Abell, Administrative Assistant Amy Skeens-Benton and school police officer Phil Hobson were also part of the administrative team that decided upon the new security measures. While they meet every year to discuss school safety and ways to improve upon it, Hobson said it seems like students have paid extra attention to the changes they have made this year.

Harbison said she has definitely missed walking outside over the past few weeks. “I like (walking outside) because it’s just a break during the day to get out of the ‘dungeon’ of school and get to see the daylight.”

Williams stressed that the administrators did not take this precaution or any of the new precautions to penalize students; rather, the students will ultimately benefit by being safer and more secure. “The point (of these new security measures) is not to punish students; they haven’t done anything wrong. Security (can be) inconvenient, but it’s our responsibility to do everything to make folks safe.”

Abell, who oversees the building and grounds, said the same. He said that it was an important decision to not allow students to walk outside. Abell said that previously there have been situations such as fights or adults pulling up next to the school and talking to students. “We’ve had incidents in the past when there have been problems,” he said. “When we have hundreds of students passing outside, we just felt like due to some problems in the past, (the new rule) would keep our students safer.”
While Harbison agreed that security is important, she said that not walking outside has made it harder to get around the school. “I definitely think the hallways are more crowded,” she said. “Maybe it’s being in the senior hall, but I feel like there are patches where you just can’t get through.”

Harbison said that while the rules can be very frustrating, she knows why the administrators have made these rules. “Right now in the short term, it’s being seen as taking our freedom away. But in the long term, like what happened at Virginia Tech, I can see where the administrators are coming from,” she said.

Hobson said that though the changes may cause the hassle of crowded hallways or a change in routine, students should keep the overall picture in mind. “Sometimes safety can cause inconvenience,” he said, “but it’s a very necessary sacrifice.” With additional reporting by Jaclyn Chen