“I do not want any student feeling targeted in this building.” These were the words of Principal Bryne Jacobs of Lafayette Senior High School in Lexington, Kentucky. In Lexington, this has become a large concern of parents, students, teachers and administrators as we begin to implement a ten point plan imposed by the district with the intent of making our schools safer places for students. No one states their fears outright, but they are whispered throughout the halls and left lingering in the minds of every student as they wait behind the metal detectors in hopes to make it through quickly.
As with every social or political issue, not everyone agrees, as no solution is perfect. But the solution agreed upon by parents and a safety board appointed by the district is encountering a lot of resistance from students who feel it isn’t really keeping them safe. Every day I hear them talk about every flaw in the system that they can find. They discuss how if someone really wanted to commit a mass shooting, they could easily kill everyone protecting the school. They mention how they believe students are essentially sitting ducks as we wait in line to be screened.
As they stand, safety procedures serve as such. Every student must wear a photo ID at all points of the school day, and every time they are in the school building. No student may walk through the halls without a hall pass or even leave their classroom without first scanning their badge. Students must enter the school building in the mornings through the gym door, no other door in the building, walk through a metal detector while a designated safety ambassador searches through their backpacks, and take their bags to a table at the back of the gym. At any given point, there are about a thousand people in the gym at once. After this, students are to go to class. If someone arrives to school after the designated start time, they must go to the front door and undergo a wanding and more thorough search. Then they go into the front office, have their badge scanned, and get a tardy slip to go to class. If any student does not have their badge, they must purchase a replacement.
Principal Jacobs took no shame in admitting the issues that came to light then, in fact stating that the first day did not meet his expectations at all.
On the first day, there were many issues with the searches before the metal detectors had even been turned on, including life-saving medications such as EpiPens and inhalers being confiscated from students. Principal Jacobs took no shame in admitting the issues that came to light then, in fact stating that the first day did not meet his expectations at all. He also stated that he was not initially aware of the training that the “safety ambassadors” had received and was planning on reviewing and adding to the information that they must learn. When asked to expand upon his expectations and what he wanted from these bag searches, Jacobs responded, “they’re not concerned with other contraband they might come across. Medication that’s not on file, even a vape, if it’s not a weapon, they’re not concerned about it. That’s not the intent behind these searches.”
The safety ambassadors are part of Helping Hands, a company that hires people who have been trained to do bag searches and run metal detectors, though not often on a scale such as this one. While other schools got used to the system very quickly, Lafayette has been struggling.
One of the major issues we have encountered since the implementation of these new procedures is that Lafayette High School is currently struggling with a major overpopulation issue. As for now, the lines have been moved into the gym to make sure that while students stand in line waiting to be searched, they are not standing outside in the cold or rain. However, some students do not feel comfortable with the searches occurring in the gym, for it corrals a large number of students in to one space at one time, raising the possibility for many other dangers. Even without a shooter, if someone were to drop a textbook, there is a possibility for a panic. Such sounds have had the same effect before, like in Times Square — as CNN stated, “After a weekend of two mass shootings that left a combined total of at least 31 dead, police say motorcycles backfiring in the popular New York tourist destination Times Square led people to believe they were at the center of a third.” Everyone tried to flee as quickly as possible, believing themselves to be in peril, and some people were trampled in the process. Several serious injuries were sustained. With such a large number of students in the gym at one time, this is not a possibility that should be ignored.
While there are both advantages and disadvantages to every part of this plan, the issue becomes that, as Jacobs acknowledged during his interview, “…the perceptual safety does not change, and may even be more damaged.”
Sarah Grace Sajadi is a junior at Lafayette High School.
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