The impurity of our security

Photo by Richard Chu

I do not want to die.

As I reflect on all of the tragic school shootings across the country, I grimace at the idea of one occurring here. All it takes is one person and a trigger to cause my friends and teachers to disappear before my eyes.

I drafted this article prior to the school shooting threats at Glenbrook North. At that point in time, there were no reports of a handgun etched into a desk. There were no bag searches at every entrance. There were not as many people leaving school out of fear. But there were my suspicions of incidents like these reaching our school.

Fortunately, the Glenbrook High School District #225 Board of Education has put exceptional effort into improving our safety, from security assessments of the school grounds to the hiring of American Heritage security guards. The advancements in security have been outstanding. But despite all this hard work, there is still a lot to be done to ensure the safety of our school.

What is to stop a tragedy from reaching GBN?

School shooting threats have now infiltrated our district. At Glenbrook South, a student was arrested for inscribing on a desk that there would be a school shooting. Not even two weeks following this threat, a similar incident occurred at GBN. The inscription read, “Shooting 10 03,” the date of the message’s discovery.

A tragedy is knocking at our door. Even if the people behind the threats are joking, it may be influencing someone else to follow through with what the threat entails. In the end, these threats could escalate to a full-on shooting. However, more stern and intense security measures might stop a school shooter from walking through our doors.

Some may insist that jumping to such an intense level of security will hurt the student body more than it will help. While it may make the school more secure, it also might inflict damage on the loving Spartan community. After all, it would not be fun to walk through a building that resembles a prison instead a school.

Nevertheless, our school atmosphere cannot be prioritized over our safety. It is captivating to watch our school rejoice in extracurricular activities and school pride while we bleed green and gold, but it will not be so pretty to bleed our warm, fear-infested blood. Let’s execute these security tactics instead of waiting to be executed.

In a district email sent on May 18, GBS Principal Lauren Fagel and GBN Principal John Finan said, “Prevention is one of our top strategies for keeping our schools safe.”

So let’s use this strategy. We must immediately employ more intense measures such as metal detectors and bag searching indefinitely in order to avoid a tragedy.

For the sake of our lives, it is time to take our security level a step further and implement more thorough safety tactics. I really do not want to die.