The Unjust Rise of Security

In Rangeview High School, security has continually increased since I was a freshman. In my freshman year there were a few hall monitors and if you had a scholar’s pass they didn’t question where you were going or what you were doing. Sophomore year RHS added the desk at the front entrance and now you need a principal pass to get off campus. Junior year the campus monitors started patrolling the area outside the front door and scholars passes meant absolutely nothing. The campus monitors also began to block the exits of the cafeteria until we were kicked out to go to class. Now in my senior year, there is so much security that it is overwhelming.


Am I the only one who sees the injustice here? Our own school doesn’t trust us enough to let us through the hallways and out the doors without being babysat by adults. The alarms were a ridiculous expense considering the alarm only goes off in that specific area and the office is never alerted of the person exiting. The alarm is just ignored for five minutes and then shuts off. Now I know that the school administration thinks that their making it so that students ditch less, but truly they are just making students ditch longer. Most students would ditch the one class they hate and then go to the rest of their classes, but since there is so much security once the student is out they don’t come back because their guaranteed to be caught. When a student needs to talk to a teacher during their off hour or before school on Wednesdays they can’t because there’s a monitor (who is simply doing their job) blocking the exit telling the student “No, you can’t leave the commons.”

Not only does this security cut students off from opportunities, it also cuts out the community. Often, parents or community members who wish to volunteer at the school has to fill out lots of paper work and give their fingerprints for a background check. No adult wants to do all that to do maybe two hours of work a semester. Then there’s the problem of scanning IDs next year to get in the building. How is the community supposed to be involved if they can’t get into the building? I’m waiting for when I come back to this school and there are electric bolts on every door, no windows, and security guards at every entrance making this no longer a school, but a “safe” penitentiary of learning.