School shootings occur every year across the U.S., raising serious concerns about school safety nationwide – including here at Grandview. Two notable incidents, the Columbine High School shooting and the recent tragedy at Evergreen High School, both happened in our state. In response to these ongoing threats, Grandview has taken precautions by keeping only the two main entrances unlocked during the school day.

“Locked doors in a school are always for school safety and security,” Darlene Sanchez, security specialist, said. “It absolutely improves and controls the safety and security of all schools.” 

Grandview High School students generally feel safe at school. Shown below is a survey asking students across all grades about how safe they feel inside Grandview. 83% of the students believe they are safe from outside school threats, and 75% of students feel they are safe from inside school threats.

However, complaints about the convenience and traffic flow of the halls arise from students.

“In this world, we Say that security comes with inconvenience. There’s going to be a lot of concern about the safety of our students. But we have to take care of you guys and protect you,” Sanchez said.

Many students don’t agree with this viewpoint, however. According to the poll, 44% of students don’t like the policy as a whole.

“It makes it difficult for me to arrive at class on time in the mornings because we have more traffic, as well as the fact that it takes several minutes to get to the end of the hall and into my first class,” Aishwarya Kamineni (11) said. “I understand it’s a security measure, but it’s really inconvenient.” 

Discussions on safety versus convenience continue to take place at Grandview over this policy. 

“Even though it does increase traffic, I feel safer with having doors that could be open to anybody from outside, locked.” Bryan Bushnell(11) said.

73.5% of students believe that the locked doors increase hallway traffic, and 79.4% of students also believe that the locked doors increase car traffic at the beginning and end of the school day .Dr. Roberts, on the other hand, believes otherwise.

“I’m not sure that the doors change how much congestion is in the parking lot,” Dr. Lisa Roberts, principal at Grandview, said. “I think anytime you take 2700 students and 300 adults and dump the building at the same exact time, you’re going to have congestion.” 

The Locked Door policy has sparked controversy throughout Grandview’s walls. However, safety has continued to be Grandview’s priority, and the Locked Doors policy ensures that.

“I think anytime the conversation is about safety, it kind of trumps [every other argument],” Roberts said.