School Safety Plan
Story by Hunter Heier »
School shootings are a growing worry in America. Since 2012, 438 people have been injured in a school shooting, with 138 people killed, according to the New York Times. With school shootings on the rise, schools have reacted with updated school intruder plans to keep students safe.
Currently, Eudora High School’s plan is run, hide, fight. That means hiding first, followed by running from the threat, with the last option being fighting the threat. This is slightly different from the national standard of run, hide, fight.
On Monday, March 26, classes ended at 12:44 for a guest speaker rotation on the topic of school safety. The speakers spoke about how threats are handled, awareness, in the event of an active shooter, and emotions.
A main reason of the talking points was to clear up any questions students may have had about school safety.
“I feel like more educated about the subject,” said Zoe Dameron, Jr.
Junior Alex Lowe agrees.
“It clarified some of the safety precautions the school is deciding to take,” Lowe said.
In an effort to extend that understanding to the Eudora community, administrators gave parents an opportunity to receive more information on school safety in Eudora Schools later on in the evening that same day at the Strong Partners, Good Neighbors, Safe Community meeting.
Because the school’s plan is different than the national standard, the informative meetings were designed to help provide some context for the reasoning behind adopting “run, hide, fight”.
“It’s effective,” said Michael Conner, Jr., “If you’re out of sight, you’re safe to an extent.”
Other students feel safest when access to the school as a whole is limited. Junior Skyler Vanderbilt thinks the current plan for dealing with an intruder is adequate, but could be improved.
“It’s not bad, but it’s not ideal,” Vanderbilt said, “I would make it to where all of the doors are locked.”
Locking more exterior doors is part of increased school safety measures planned for next year. One place that those changes will have a noticeable effect will be for students going to and from the EDTEC building.
“If we have a second building, there needs to be a safer way to get to it,” said Vanderbilt.
Other students also have ideas when it comes to changes that could be made to keep the students safe during an intruder situation.
Senior Eric Eimer thinks that evacuating students from parts of the EHS campus that are not in immediate danger would be more effective.
“If you know where the intruder is at, evacuate the people farthest away,” Eimer said, “Keep the others in the classrooms that the intruder is near.”
That assumes that all classrooms can be quickly evacuated when necessary. Inside the school there are some areas where there isn’t any good option to either exit the building or any cover.
“The best rooms to be in would be near exit doors,” Eimer said, “Then you could get out easily without any obstacles.”
Vanderbilt has considered her emergency options as well.
“The best place to be would be somewhere weird, like the bathroom,” said Vanderbilt, reasoning that an intruder would typically move towards a classroom.
Another place Vanderbilt believed to be one of the worst spots in the school to be in during an intruder situation is in the office.
“The office only has a glass front and desks,” said Vanderbilt.
Michael Conner agrees that some rooms would be easier to barricade than others.
“The best room would be Mr. Robinson’s room,” said Conner. “There is only one way to get in, which is through the two doors.” Conner also thought that the worst places to be in would have to be be in the gymnasium or cafeteria.
“It’s all open, there’s nowhere to hide,” said Conner.
