Locked up for lockdowns

story by Alexandra Frisch, photos by Elsa Feigenbaum

On Aug. 19, a rock was smashed through a glass door in the M&A Building. The following day, Aug. 20, the entire school was forced into a lockdown because of unauthorized personnel in the student parking lot. When events like these occur, there are multiple procedures set in place to identify the problem and to keep students safe.

At around 10 a.m. Aug. 20, most of STA is sitting in class, taking notes or listening to teachers as the final minutes of third period tick away. Interrupting this daily routine is the sound of the PA system as it crackles to life. It is announced that unauthorized personnel are on campus and the school is under lockdown.

In the event of school-wide lockdown, one of the first and most important things the school does to keep students safe is to communicate information as they learn it, according to principal of student affairs Mary Beth Compton.

“If we can get to a PA and share that we need to move into a particular security level, then that’s what happens first,” principal of academic affairs Barbara McCormick said. “We might not have all the information when we call for that particular level of security, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. So we go at a higher security level so that we can move down from there if we need to.”

However, sometimes communication through the PA systems cannot always be heard.

“Mr. Tonnies’ room’s speaker was either turned down or broken,” Compton said. “We’re exploring if we need to add another speaker in the gym.”

STA is also looking into alternative ways of communication such as walkie talkies, in case of broken PAs or for places in the school with little to no cell reception, such as The Commons or the gym.

According to McCormick, knowing where to go and what to do in a security situation is vital.

“STA has always had a drill day for as long as I’ve worked here by the second day of school because we have a large population of new students and faculty here,” McCormick said. “We’re running through that so if there are people who are unsure of where to go, what to do or how to do it, we can correct it in that time.”

The faculty and staff also run through drills and situations of their own at least twice a year where they discuss security protocols.

“We often will discuss or brainstorm ‘what-ifs,’ because we have a great protocol and a great plan, but you can’t plan for everything that’s going to happen,” McCormick said. “Some of it comes down to having to make judgment calls in those particular situations.”

According to McCormick, however, if there is a security situation, then the staff will usually go through more than the two originally planned meetings. During these meetings, they review old procedures and formulate new ways to keep the school safe. This includes occasionally meeting with various police officers.

According to McCormick, one of the results of these meetings has been the supply of wasp spray and a hammer in every classroom. The hammer and wasp spray, used because it reaches further than pepper spray, were a new addition last year and would be used by teachers in the case of an emergency. In addition to the hammer and wasp spray, the keypads on the doors of all the buildings were introduced in 2009.

“We were moving away from having the doors unlocked all day because [at that time] that was the only way girls could move between the buildings,” McCormick said. “So it was in order to provide a locked environment that would be a little more secure.” STA also has the benefit of having cameras on the quad, on the field and at the entrances of the buildings.

Despite the lockdown, sophomore Bailey Briscoe still thinks of STA as a safe environment.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a time when I’ve not felt secure at school,” Briscoe said. “The only time I haven’t been comfortable sitting in the quad is two days after the car break-in. I feel like that that made me realize that maybe it’s not quite as secure as I thought. But in general, I think STA is a very safe place.”

Apart from a few small tweaks, the STA security system will mostly remain as it was before.

“Our security policies overall won’t be changing,” Compton said. “We have staff training on all kinds of situations. Those policies and protocols will not be changing overall. What we have been able to do as a result of the recent events is to identify areas that might need some improvement or some loose ends that might need to be tied up.”

McCormick believes that because of the lockdown, both students and faculty will be more aware of the safety of STA.

“I’m just hopeful that the girls felt safe,” McCormick said. “I felt that our faculty and our students did an amazing job during the lockdown. They took it seriously, there wasn’t any clowning around. Everyone acted appropriately.”