School exits, other than the lobby, should not be locked during the school day. With all exits being opened during the day, students are given more places to leave from during the school day. This would be beneficial because the lobby would be less crowded, which has been a major issue affecting all students at Schreiber.
“I think that if we opened more exits and entrances, then it would be substantially easier for students to come and go to the school. It’s really annoying to have to wait in line to come into the building if you’re rushing to your next class and are already pushing it a little bit. The build up in the morning or after lunch periods can be extremely time consuming and frustrating,” said senior Paul Trombley
A main reason the school should change its current policy is that teachers should provide supervision that allows students to enter and exit safely. Also, since there are teachers already doing hall duty at most exits, teachers could simply check student ID cards before they come into the building. This would be an easy solution and wouldn’t require much work to implement.
Another way the school could make all doors accessible and safe is that the school could give students identification cards like the teachers have. These cards could be scanned at the door and would eliminate the need for teachers to be on hall duty at all.
During lunch periods, when students go outside, there is a huge backup at the main entrance. If students were able to enter from any entrance using ID cards, there would be much less traffic at the main entrance and students could get to class more quickly and efficiently. Currently, the long time that it takes for students to show and have their ID cards checked by a security guard can cause them to be late or delay them from getting to class on time.
Additionally, it takes away from free period time, because sometimes students have class on the other side of the building. There are exits by these classes, but students are not supposed to use those exits because they are locked during the school day. With all doors being opened, students could get outside faster and have more time for lunch or an off period.
“All school exits should be unlocked during school hours because the main entrance, which is currently the only entrance open, gets really crowded. This means it takes a long time to get in and out of the school. Therefore, it would increase efficiency if all of the entrances were in use throughout the school day,” said freshman Drew Engel.
Finally, I believe all doors should be accessible to students during the school day because the doors get crowded when students are coming into school in the morning, and if students could come in through any entrance, then they could get into school quicker.
Nevertheless, there are still students who will argue for the school to continue the current policy.
“If there is a lockdown drill, security guards might not have enough time to lock the other doors. School exits, other than the main entrance, should be locked because then students will not be able or tempted to exit the school from exits that they are not supposed to be using. If used, the security will find out immediately due to the main office getting a silent alarm, a door that is not supposed to open, was opened,” said freshman Harrison Koppelman.
It is more important to decrease lobby traffic than to slightly increase school safety. There are ample teachers and security guards available to watch over the school, making it possible to unlock the other exits without compromising the safety of Schreiber students.