Many students, parents and staff, etc. have voiced concerns of our student’s safety after recent events in Florida and rumors in the community. Staff has made us aware of several details regarding this concern.

Cyndi Bell, one of the assistant principals said, “Any concern that’s been brought to our attention we are going to investigate fully. We are going to try to get it down to the route of where the comment or what the concern is or where it came from initially. Unfortunately, what we’re mainly dealing with is a bunch of here say. That it’s nothing more than I heard, well who did you hear it from? Wel, I heard it from so-n-so, who heard it from so-n-so, who heard it from their brother. It’s like a worm hole, we can’t get to the end of it.”

A lot of students wonder if they are safe at school anymore. Bell said, “We’ve actually upped some of the entry requirements whenever people come into the building and all they are asked before they’re ever let in the very front doors, what their purpose of the visit is. They have to show identification if they are coming into the building and we’ve asked all of our teachers to be a lot more diligent about being in the hallway during hall breaks and kind of monitoring the cameras at all times.”

Principal Chris Mason went over the intercom during third period to reassure students that they’re safe at school, along with an email that was sent out to teachers earlier today in second period. Bell said, “Overall what we were hearing is that instruction was being disrupted today. That students minds were not focused on what they needed to be focused on. That there was continuing to be so much conversation about, I heard this, did you hear this. People constantly on their phones. We’ve been talking to every student that’s come up and trying to reassure them, but we kinda just wanted to do a blanket statement for everybody like, guys we’ve got it, because we were continuing to get the same story over and over.”

Rumors about police officers being in the building have swirled around, concerning the students. “We actually do. Our school resource officer is here today and we actually have two school resource officers and they try to stop by some point every day. She came in this morning and plans on staying here throughout the day. It’s not so much that we called her in, it’s just that she wants to be her. It’s part of her job to be here as much as possible,” said Bell.

Overall, student safety is the biggest concern and the community just wants to know that students are safe and that the administration is taking everything seriously. Bell said, “We always take a concern seriously. If it’s dealing with student safety at all, we’re always going to air on the side of precaution.”