Imagine this: you have had a stressful week at school and just want to go home. The minute the bell rings, you bolt from the building, forgetting a few books. Later, you realize your error and panic. You now must face the dilemma: break the rules and use a teacher’s code to get into the buildings after hours or do without study materials or personal items.

“It’s not like I’m doing anything wrong,” said one student, who stayed after school late and left something in her locker in the other building. “I’m just getting my keys and leaving.”

Principle of Student Affairs Ms. Mary Anne Hoecker does not know how students obtain these codes, but wants to eliminate the spread of after-hours codes, as she stated in a recent lunchtime announcement.

“It’s similar to if a student had a key,” Hoecker said. “That’s why I made the announcement… for security reasons number one, and I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

The student said she knew she was not supposed to have the code, but did not fear being caught prior to the announcement.

“Initially, before Ms. Hoecker made the announcement, it never really crossed my mind that I could get in trouble because I was using [the codes] for school-related purposes,” she said. “But now I’m always checking over my shoulder to see where Security Bob is and make sure I’m not going to get caught.”

In addition to the presence of Mr. Bob Wessling, commonly know as Security Bob, and the threat of SBRs, new technology could be another reason not to use teacher and staff codes.

“I don’t know if students understand this or not, but say a student gets in after hours,” Hoecker said. “We can look at the film. We can figure out the time she entered and code she used.”

This fact alone was enough to scare the same student, a regular user of after-hours codes.

“That terrifies me,” the student said. “I kind of feel like our administration has been giving us so many empty threats over the years… and I don’t know if they would actually do that, but it made me rethink ever using the teacher codes again.”

Still, there will always be panicked students who want to get in the building while school is closed, and, according to senior Angelica DeSimio, the school should be open during certain hours for them to come after school or on weekends. The anonymous student feels the best solution is to find Security Bob and ask to be let in. Hoecker said she is willing to open the school up for special circumstances such as practices and after school activities, but the student must let her know ahead of time.

These students both agree that the codes are easy to obtain through friends or even to guess. The anonymous student said a friend saw what a teacher typed and it spread from there.

“It might be easy for the girls to remember [the codes], but it might be easy for everyone else,” DeSimio said. “They’re trying to make our school more protected with these codes, but if they don’t make it more difficult they’re not really doing the job of protecting the school.”

Though there may be flaws to the system, according to DeSimio, Hoecker has made it clear that students will no longer enter using an after-hours code or they will receive an SBR.

“In high school, you have to be supervised,” Hoecker said. “We’re still a high school, and so the expectation is students are moderated.”

Editor’s Note: The unnamed interviewee and Principle of Student Affairs Mary Anne Hoecker mutually agreed that this student remain anonymous.