SAFETY: Recent events at Poly High School have brought the school’s safety into question.
By Andrin Bar, Staff Writer
No one wants an emergency to happen in a workplace. It is an inconvenience that many people cannot afford to deal with. However, as much as one could wish for such events not to occur, incidents are inevitable. As such, the important thing to remember is to be ready for it. Yet, at Poly High School this November, three events have led to the questioning of the schools’ safety.
The first event was a five minute lockdown caused by a car crash outside of the school. This event took place on November 5th, at around 2:30 pm. The lockdown lasted only five minutes, but in many classrooms, this felt like hours. An email was sent after the events by Principal Darel E. Hansen, stating that “At approximately 2:30pm, a report was given to the main office that there was a reported car accident on Central, and that the adults involved were fighting in the road and there was a loud bang that sounded like gunfire.” Thankfully, there were no injuries, but the event left many students shaken and questioning whether Poly High is still a safe place.
Six days later, on November 12 at around 1:55 pm, the fire alarm went off, forcing students to evacuate the building and stand on the football field for around 15 minutes. Though it seems like a minor incident, what was concerning was the manner in which students evacuated. There was chaos amongst them, as no one knew where to go and what to do. Official school safety protocol states that students should return to their previous teacher, as this teacher likely has taken roll call and knows who is present, unless the student has already sat down in their next classroom. However, students went to their next period teachers, or teachers from entirely different classes, going against school protocol and further adding to the confusion. Because of this, school safety was once again questioned.
Finally, only two days later on November 14 , an email was sent to students by Mr. Hansen stating that “We were recently notified that yesterday afternoon, while walking home, three Poly students were approached by an African American male in his mid-twenties wearing a grey sweatshirt. The three students reported to the Riverside Police Department that this suspect was in possession of a pistol…and robbed them of their cash and cell phones”, further adding to a growing feeling of unrest in the Poly student body.
So the question has become, is Poly High safe and prepared to handle situations involving student safety, or do the safety protocols need to be reformed? In order to find out, Mr. Darel Hansen was interviewed about his opinion on the state of the school safety environment. When asked whether he believed that the school was equipped to handle safety issues, Mr. Hansen replied “Absolutely, many of the teachers have been here for some time, and some of the processes that you go through for both an evacuation scenario and a lockdown scenario, those haven’t changed. We do drills just to remind people and to keep it fresh in their heads, but are we prepared? Absolutely.” Despite this, there was still evident confusion surrounding the previous fire alarm event. When asked about this confusion, Mr. Hansen explained that “When that alarm went off, we immediately found that it was a false alarm, but it went off at what is considered one of the worst times it could have gone off, because the two minute bell had rung, but the last bell had not, so I called and said continue with the process, because that’s how you learn.” Mr. Hansen explained that he knew there would be some confusion, but that he wanted to continue with the evacuation and use it as a drill. It is clear that Mr. Hansen is very focused on providing a safe learning environment to the students of Poly High. When asked whether he prefers to put the school in lockdown before the full scope of a situation is known, or whether he would rather wait and gather information before making a decision, Mr. Hansen replied “…It’s much easier to say “put us on lockdown, we’ll figure this out, everybody will be safe” and if we are wrong…we just release the lockdown. It’s far better in my opinion than finding out it’s true and that someone got hurt.” It is clear Mr. Hansen is taking safety very seriously, stating “It’s always safety first for me, [to] make sure we know what to do to secure and create the safest environment on our campus.”
So is Poly High School safe? Well, the chances of an event occurring, such as a school shooting or earthquake is unpredictable. But in terms of preparation, there is a lot going on. Mr. Hansen is currently trying to find out where Poly High School students currently stand on their safety knowledge, and plans to run numerous lockdown and evacuation drills. “We are always looking at what the best interest of the students in regards to safety is…and review everything we do in regards to safety…I think you show that you are prepared by going through these drills”. In other words, it would appear that Poly is certainly trying its best to guarantee the safety of its students.