School Safety Part 6: Students' Thoughts
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
“I think we’re a pretty safe school in general,” said TVHS junior Anna Higgins. “Just because we have a school resource officer right here, and people have to go through the glass doors to go through the office to even be in our school. ... All of the other doors are locked, too, so they can’t really get in unless they really wanted to.”
“I feel safe here, too,” agreed TVHS junior Cara Hoffman. “They lock all the classroom doors now anyways, so no one can get in very easily.”
Hoffman said the presence at the school of John Hart, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department school resource officer, and other officers at home varsity athletic events, makes her feel safe.
“I think John Hart is enough for our school, and I think he can cover the middle school, too, just because they’re real close,” Higgins said.
“Officer Hart, he also keeps a lot of violence down at our school. He keeps fights to a minimum and he does a very good job here,” Hoffman added.
As for the idea of teachers being armed at school, sophomore Bryce Zimpleman said, “I don’t think that’s a very good idea. It’s not to say that teachers might have a bad day or something, and then they might not be in a good mood or anything. You just never know.”
“Where would they keep it anyway?” asked sophomore Marissa Philips. “Could students get to that? I just think it’s weird. It should just be left to our school officer to handle that.”
First-year students Thomas Rensberger and Whitney Haneline also reported feeling “pretty safe” at Valley.
“I feel safe now that we have the doors locked and people can’t get in,” said Haneline.
Valley senior Destiny Hansen said she feels “100 percent safe” at the high school because “we’re all small town people and everyone knows each other.”
“I feel pretty safe here. It’s a small school so if someone sees someone they don’t know, they would point them out,” agreed senior Tyler Monroe.
Both of the seniors strongly agreed that arming teachers was not a good idea.
“No,” Monroe quickly agreed. “I can see a student getting a hold of it.”
Though WCHS is about twice as large as TVHS, students at Warsaw reported feeling just as safe at school.
Senior Matt Schmidt said, “Personally, I find school to be one of the safest places to go. I just feel really safe here.”
Cody Shafer, junior, said, “I feel pretty safe here because I know there’s always a teacher, administrator in the halls, and there’s police officers, like Officer (Dave) Morales, they’re always patrolling in the morning, at lunch time. They’re randomly patrolling the building.”
Though senior Connor Singrey feels pretty safe at WCHS, he does see a couple of problem areas as far as security.
“The only safety concern I would have is, sometimes, I have to buzz in to get in on PLC days to get in during the morning. And all I have to do is say I’m here for Boomerang Backpacks. All really anyone would have to do is, if they had malicious intention, is say, ‘Hey, my name is John Smith and I’m here to help with such-and such.’ And I don’t know if it’s a fault of the system or if you can’t check every person,” Singrey said.
Alexis Laurea said sometimes during passing periods, at stairwells and other locations, she sees people opening doors for others occasionally, even if they may not know who the person is.
“I feel like there are so many entrances open in the morning everywhere, and I feel like people could get in,” said Matt Grothouse.
Cole Baker said, “There’s so many security cameras around this school that even if something did happen, it would be kind of hard not to see someone’s face.”
Laurea said with the student IDs, the school is stressing students only wear this year’s ID because former students could potentially use old IDs to get in.
“They don’t change color. They work still,” she said. “My IDs from seventh grade work here. The bar codes don’t change.”
Schmidt added, “They check to see if we have them on, but they don’t check to see if they’re current ones.”
One of the reason the Warsaw students feel safe is because of the community they live in.
“It’s just a safe place,” said Singrey. “I think I remember there was a murder a couple of years ago and it was such a huge deal. If you live in like Fort Wayne, there’s a lot more violent crime, and you never hear about that here. You’ll hear about meth busts ... but it’s not a big effect, it’s not like people are slinging crack or shooting up. It’s not happening in Warsaw, so it’s not happening in schools.”
All the WCHS students were opposed to arming teachers in the classroom.
“I think there’s a place for guns, but I don’t think school is it. I think if teachers and administrators are armed as well as the officers, there would be more of an atmosphere of mistrust in the school. I feel like they’d be less likely to trust me, and therefore I would be less likely to trust them. So I would be opposed to arming teachers,” said Schmidt.
Shafer added, “I think if a teacher were armed or had a gun on them, I think it would be easy for a student to take them because I know students steal from the classroom.”
“I don’t think that teachers should have guns. Maybe training for defense if a student should have one, but I don’t think a teacher should have a firearm,” said Keeton Bartol.
Students also were opposed to armed guards in the school.
“Too many of them would be like oppressive,” said Schmidt.
Many of the students also felt there was adequate counseling and mental health assistance if a student needed it. Shafer said it was really easy to get in to talk to a counselor if needed.
Marie Hoover said, “A lot of people have mental issues. They get bullied or made fun of, it’s hard to deal with. With counselors, it’s good to have a counselor to go and talk to.”
Jessica Hoag added, “I think there’s a lot of stereotyping and bullying that goes on here because we live in a small town and a lot of the stereotypes get passed on from parents to kids. So I think the school is unsafe in that way.”
She said more could be done to prevent bullying at the high school.
“I feel like a lot of people (who need counseling) don’t go and seek help. It’s kind of like David (Zigon), no one saw it coming with him. He didn’t go seek help. When you’re in that kind of state, you don’t think that anything can help you. Kind of seeing that, just trying to predict that, it’s really hard to and no one sees it happening, and all you can do is be prepared for those situations,” said Laurea.
Zigon, 18, was a WCHS student who died Dec. 27 from suicide.
“I’m sure if we had a huge army of guards, I definitely wouldn’t want to do anything sneaky, but I think it’s more like students looking out for students. Maybe people getting more involved, too,” said Singrey. “... But I think it’s on everybody’s shoulders to do something. To be there and talk to people if they’re acting quiet.”
“There are some people here being bullied and people will just walk away from it, they don’t care. If you stand up for that person, then you can be able to help that person, maybe get it to be stopped,” said Hoover.[[In-content Ad]]
“I think we’re a pretty safe school in general,” said TVHS junior Anna Higgins. “Just because we have a school resource officer right here, and people have to go through the glass doors to go through the office to even be in our school. ... All of the other doors are locked, too, so they can’t really get in unless they really wanted to.”
“I feel safe here, too,” agreed TVHS junior Cara Hoffman. “They lock all the classroom doors now anyways, so no one can get in very easily.”
Hoffman said the presence at the school of John Hart, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department school resource officer, and other officers at home varsity athletic events, makes her feel safe.
“I think John Hart is enough for our school, and I think he can cover the middle school, too, just because they’re real close,” Higgins said.
“Officer Hart, he also keeps a lot of violence down at our school. He keeps fights to a minimum and he does a very good job here,” Hoffman added.
As for the idea of teachers being armed at school, sophomore Bryce Zimpleman said, “I don’t think that’s a very good idea. It’s not to say that teachers might have a bad day or something, and then they might not be in a good mood or anything. You just never know.”
“Where would they keep it anyway?” asked sophomore Marissa Philips. “Could students get to that? I just think it’s weird. It should just be left to our school officer to handle that.”
First-year students Thomas Rensberger and Whitney Haneline also reported feeling “pretty safe” at Valley.
“I feel safe now that we have the doors locked and people can’t get in,” said Haneline.
Valley senior Destiny Hansen said she feels “100 percent safe” at the high school because “we’re all small town people and everyone knows each other.”
“I feel pretty safe here. It’s a small school so if someone sees someone they don’t know, they would point them out,” agreed senior Tyler Monroe.
Both of the seniors strongly agreed that arming teachers was not a good idea.
“No,” Monroe quickly agreed. “I can see a student getting a hold of it.”
Though WCHS is about twice as large as TVHS, students at Warsaw reported feeling just as safe at school.
Senior Matt Schmidt said, “Personally, I find school to be one of the safest places to go. I just feel really safe here.”
Cody Shafer, junior, said, “I feel pretty safe here because I know there’s always a teacher, administrator in the halls, and there’s police officers, like Officer (Dave) Morales, they’re always patrolling in the morning, at lunch time. They’re randomly patrolling the building.”
Though senior Connor Singrey feels pretty safe at WCHS, he does see a couple of problem areas as far as security.
“The only safety concern I would have is, sometimes, I have to buzz in to get in on PLC days to get in during the morning. And all I have to do is say I’m here for Boomerang Backpacks. All really anyone would have to do is, if they had malicious intention, is say, ‘Hey, my name is John Smith and I’m here to help with such-and such.’ And I don’t know if it’s a fault of the system or if you can’t check every person,” Singrey said.
Alexis Laurea said sometimes during passing periods, at stairwells and other locations, she sees people opening doors for others occasionally, even if they may not know who the person is.
“I feel like there are so many entrances open in the morning everywhere, and I feel like people could get in,” said Matt Grothouse.
Cole Baker said, “There’s so many security cameras around this school that even if something did happen, it would be kind of hard not to see someone’s face.”
Laurea said with the student IDs, the school is stressing students only wear this year’s ID because former students could potentially use old IDs to get in.
“They don’t change color. They work still,” she said. “My IDs from seventh grade work here. The bar codes don’t change.”
Schmidt added, “They check to see if we have them on, but they don’t check to see if they’re current ones.”
One of the reason the Warsaw students feel safe is because of the community they live in.
“It’s just a safe place,” said Singrey. “I think I remember there was a murder a couple of years ago and it was such a huge deal. If you live in like Fort Wayne, there’s a lot more violent crime, and you never hear about that here. You’ll hear about meth busts ... but it’s not a big effect, it’s not like people are slinging crack or shooting up. It’s not happening in Warsaw, so it’s not happening in schools.”
All the WCHS students were opposed to arming teachers in the classroom.
“I think there’s a place for guns, but I don’t think school is it. I think if teachers and administrators are armed as well as the officers, there would be more of an atmosphere of mistrust in the school. I feel like they’d be less likely to trust me, and therefore I would be less likely to trust them. So I would be opposed to arming teachers,” said Schmidt.
Shafer added, “I think if a teacher were armed or had a gun on them, I think it would be easy for a student to take them because I know students steal from the classroom.”
“I don’t think that teachers should have guns. Maybe training for defense if a student should have one, but I don’t think a teacher should have a firearm,” said Keeton Bartol.
Students also were opposed to armed guards in the school.
“Too many of them would be like oppressive,” said Schmidt.
Many of the students also felt there was adequate counseling and mental health assistance if a student needed it. Shafer said it was really easy to get in to talk to a counselor if needed.
Marie Hoover said, “A lot of people have mental issues. They get bullied or made fun of, it’s hard to deal with. With counselors, it’s good to have a counselor to go and talk to.”
Jessica Hoag added, “I think there’s a lot of stereotyping and bullying that goes on here because we live in a small town and a lot of the stereotypes get passed on from parents to kids. So I think the school is unsafe in that way.”
She said more could be done to prevent bullying at the high school.
“I feel like a lot of people (who need counseling) don’t go and seek help. It’s kind of like David (Zigon), no one saw it coming with him. He didn’t go seek help. When you’re in that kind of state, you don’t think that anything can help you. Kind of seeing that, just trying to predict that, it’s really hard to and no one sees it happening, and all you can do is be prepared for those situations,” said Laurea.
Zigon, 18, was a WCHS student who died Dec. 27 from suicide.
“I’m sure if we had a huge army of guards, I definitely wouldn’t want to do anything sneaky, but I think it’s more like students looking out for students. Maybe people getting more involved, too,” said Singrey. “... But I think it’s on everybody’s shoulders to do something. To be there and talk to people if they’re acting quiet.”
“There are some people here being bullied and people will just walk away from it, they don’t care. If you stand up for that person, then you can be able to help that person, maybe get it to be stopped,” said Hoover.[[In-content Ad]]
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