Staff and Students at South Side High School Express Their Thoughts on The Safety

By Alivya Herman (10)
alivya.herman@fwcsstudents.org

April 13, 2023

Throughout the years, South Side High School has had a reputation of being an unsafe environment for students. Parents and students sometimes worry about how safe it is in the school building. Luckily, there are resources available throughout the school that help students feel and stay safer. 

The first thing is the resource officers, Officer Bryant and Dale Wilson, they make sure that students are safe as well as making sure they aren’t causing trouble.

“You're going to always have problems just because you're dealing with the unknown. I think that if everybody is made to have their school IDs and keep enforcing the hats and hoods, it won't be perfect but it would be close to it,” Officer Bryant said.

South Side has officers in and out of the building all day long making sure that students are doing what they’re supposed to be doing as well as keeping them safe. 

“The real thing is that the real threat to the school is the students themselves that want to come in and cause trouble with weapons and violence. The use of medal detectors would greatly enhance the safety of the students and keep them from any possible harm,” Mr. Wilson said. 

Po Aye (10) had just moved to South Side. Compared to her old school in Texas, she thinks the safety here is much better. 

“I think that the officers and staff are doing a good job protecting the kids at South Side. Nothing has actually harmed me in any way so I feel that I don’t have a reason to worry about my safety,” Aye said. 

The next thing is administrators. There are many administrators and teachers throughout the building daily. Mrs. Lori Adkins, an assistant principal at South Side, is one of the administrators that help make sure everything runs smoothly. 

“I feel that students feel comfortable talking to adults and let us know when there is a problem going on. But the key to safety is open communication. We need to make sure that if a student sees something that doesn't seem right, I'd rather them report it to us and let us check it out instead of ignoring it and going on,” Mrs. Adkins said. 

Safety in the building can always be improved one way or another. That’s why there are adults in the building who know what to do in certain situations. It’s important to be kind to one another and use the resources provided to keep the building as well as others safe.

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