Students speak out about security at school

Editor’s Note: Student Union is written by students at Brewer High School, Hermon High School, Schenck High School in East Millinocket, Searsport District High School and Stearns High School in Millinocket. The weekly column is a joint effort among the schools, the Bangor Daily News and Acadia Hospital. This week’s column was written by Brewer High School students. Their adviser is Sherrie Thomas.

Seven hours of a teenager’s day is spent sitting in a desk for seven or eight periods, walking through familiar hallways between classes, and spending approximately 20 minutes eating lunch in a cafeteria with hundreds of their peers.

As those teenagers, we are strongly urged by society to spend our time in school, but how many people have taken the time to ponder how safe and secure we feel at the place we have to go five of seven days a week? In the midst of all the controversy surrounding school shootings, stabbings and other acts of violence, teens and adults from our community speak out about how they feel within the walls of where they spend much of their time: high school.

Students of Brewer High School start their day at 7:45 a.m. as the first bell rings, and they all report to their advocate rooms. After 20 minutes of conversation with the advocate and their peers, they wander into the halls. As the next four minutes pass, they head to first period for 45 minutes until the cycle repeats itself.

How safe do the students of Brewer High feel each time they walk into a new classroom or into the hallway? How do they know that no one in the school has a weapon or intentions to harm them?

“There is someone in every school that is capable of bringing a gun,” senior Chris Luce said. Ben Davis, also a senior, added, “You could get a gun into school so easily. No one ever checks. I could have one in my bag or coat, and nobody would even know about it.”

Students don’t live in fear that their peers are going to bring weapons to school, but they also don’t think it would be a difficult task for someone to do so.

It isn’t just students who don’t feel secure within the walls of Brewer High. Some teachers agree with them. Math teacher Michael Hutchins mentioned that he has thought a lot about the security of the school.

“Anyone could come up the back path from T.J. Ryan Center, go in the back door, and do anything they wanted to do. What is going to stop them from coming in that back door? It isn’t locked,” he said.

During a psychology lecture from Sue Dumont about the Minnesota student, Jeff Weise, who shot 10 people including himself at Red Lake High School, she said, “It’s crazy to think that Weise got through all that [security and metal detectors], and we don’t even have anything.”

Students of John Bapst Memorial High School shared their opinions about some aspects that make them feel safe. “I think that different styles of clothes put off different signals,” said Jen Day. Bapst students felt that their dress code makes them feel safer. Day added, “Kids who dress in the baggy pants and the ghetto clothes put off dangerous vibes to me.”

Students at John Bapst also felt that a smaller school makes them feel more secure. “Security measures are needed more at larger schools,” said Rachel Chesley. Overall the Bapst students felt that a smaller school gives them more peace of mind.

Some students from Bangor High School also said that they felt safe. “I feel wicked safe in school,” said Billy Kimball.

Bangor High senior Chad Payne moved to Maine from California at the beginning of the year. Sharing his opinion on the safety at Bangor High, he said that without a doubt, he felt much safer now than in his previous high school.

“The people are much less confrontational over here,” he said.

Sophomore Kristina Wildes said, “I feel safe at Bangor. I think that it is harder for people to get into the halls during classes because there are so many hall monitors that are asking you for a pass or where you are supposed to be.”

So is it the size of the school that affects how safe the students feel? Is it the security measures taken in the larger schools that allow those students to feel safe? Possibly.

However, going back to Jeff Weise, he took a gun through metal detectors into a school populated with only 350 students. Just because students are in smaller, secure schools does not make them immune to someone who is determined to harm their teachers or peers.