“We can’t make the assumption that our schools are safe places, it’s a reality that we have to face,” Principal Dr. Jerry Lee Anderson said.

Sadly in our modern society, school shootings have become more common each year. According to the Washington Post, more than 215,000 students have experienced school shootings since the Columbine High School incident in 1999.

Out of those 215,000 students, 31 people have been killed and 59 have been injured this year due to the 17 school shootings in 2018 so far. This is the highest amount of these massacres in a single year since 1999.

Based on the statistics high schools are targeted more than elementary and middle schools, and have a higher death toll.

The highest amount of students who have experienced a gunman on campus was over 2,930 students in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, an event that still devastates many people.
Because H-F holds abut 3,000 students in an open campus increased safety procedures were needed.

“When we have our doors open we give ourselves the opportunity to let people come into the school unchecked,” Anderson said. “We met with a security consultant and it was his recommendation that we have the students wear lanyards with IDs.”

The desired outcome of the students wearing the required IDs is to help the staff keep campus as safe as possible.

Brad Deegan, a security guard who has worked at H-F for thirteen years is confident that the entire staff can better protect the students from any threat by identifying them with their lanyards.

It’s an immediate indicator that they belong here. You can’t always tell by just looking at them,” Deegan said.

However, some students disagree with Deegan’s statement, believing that wearing lanyards isn’t the solution.

Senior Edrianna Assam said that the source of our safety should come from the people monitoring the grounds, not the identification of students.

“I think we need better security guards and have them at more stations around the building,” Assam said.

Regardless of who or what protects the school Lee feels that “school safety is everyone’s responsibility,” and any attempt to further secure the school is worth trying.

“If it’s something we can avoid why wouldn’t we do everything we can to make sure that we know who’s on our campus?” Anderson said.