Adam Miller, Lieutenant of Carmel Police Department and Commander of School Resource Unit, educates students about points of entry and exit at the school. Miller said informing students about ways to leave the school in case danger arises, is crucial in ensuring their safety.

As the first semester of the 2023-2024 school year comes to an end, the School Resource Officers (SROs) are focused on preventing students from other schools from entering this school.

Christopher Glander, freshman center safety administrator and assistant principal, said a big topic of concern this year has been making sure students don’t leave or enter the school without identification.

“A big thing we’re worried about is students that don’t attend Carmel trespassing on school property or even entering the school. We had an incident this year where kids from other schools were walking the halls, which puts (our) kids in a very unsafe situation,” Glander said. “There are multiple points of entry to our school, so one of the things we’ve been doing for several years is making sure we have eyes on all points of entry into the school. We have people with radios that can communicate with us and let us know if anything or anyone suspicious is entering the building.

Junior Ava Luo said she heard about the incident this year and said she is glad the SROs are strictly regulating who comes into and leaves the school.

“I thought someone walking our halls that didn’t attend Carmel was very weird and scary. They were probably someone’s friend but the fact they were able to get in easily goes to show how lax security was,” Luo said. “I’m glad the SROs are taking (trespassers) more seriously because you never know when an intruder could get in disguised as a student.”

On the topic of intruders, Ashley Williams, Master Patrol Officer and SRO, said teaching students about building safety was crucial in aiding their understanding of how to escape a dangerous situation.

“Right now most students probably don’t know where to go if there’s an intruder near their classroom. Teachers usually manage that but we want students to know safe spaces in the building so they can escape or hide if a dangerous situation arises,” Williams said. “To create more (student) understanding of the building and how to get out, we’re currently teaching groups of students during their English period about safe places and the closest exits to their particular classes. Hopefully this will allow students to get out of the school quickly if something bad were to happen.”