Students deserve safety.
This is indisputable. No good person would claim that students deserve to go to school feeling unsafe. Regardless of who you are, that statement remains unchanged — students deserve safety, because students are the future.
I am a student at Hunter High. When you enter Hunter High, the first notable things you see are ugly, gray metal detectors. The metal detectors were put in place after a fatal shooting in 2022. School officials established these measures to reduce the risk of future tragedies.
Ultimately, it is the responsibility of school officials to ensure that students remain safe. Some school officials, however, go about this in a very misguided way, focusing on the comfort of specific individuals rather than the safety of all students.
In 2023, a female student at West High was stabbed by a male student, which came as a shock to many. The year prior, the assailant had been removed from school for threatening to harm and kill others. Not even the principal was made aware of the student’s background, however, despite the threat he posed to other students. When the principal asked why, he was told that school officials wanted to ensure the student had a clean slate. District officials were worried that this student would be treated poorly and negatively labeled because of his previous actions. Even more dangerous than labels, though, are those who would fatally attack a peer. By focusing entirely on one student, officials were unintentionally putting other students at risk.
School officials have the ability and responsibility to inspire the minds of adolescents and provide help for struggling students. Most importantly, they have the ability to keep schools safe — a feat made impossible if the focus remains on specific individuals, rather than the whole school.
Evelyn Stoddard, West Valley City
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