In the aftermath of the February 14 school shooting in Florida and the numerous other shootings at schools that have occurred, the Wayne Board of Education has taken several steps to improve school safety including hiring off-duty police officers and contracting with a private security firm. 

The decisions were announced at the Thursday, March 1st meeting and then dispatched to schools via a letter from Superintendent Mark Toback on March 2.

 “While I think we all understand that there are no guarantees with any of this, we have a good start on some long-needed changes,” Toback said. 

In addition to the increased police presence and security firm intervention, Since the shooting, Wayne schools is much more strict with letting people into the building and it is very likely more actions will be taken in the coming weeks. The Parkland shooting was the 8th school shooting in 2018 (that resulted in injury or death) in the United States alone. This is shocking and very scary considering the fact that the shooting was on Valentine’s day, less than two months into the year.

The most recent shooting took place was at the aforementioned Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The shooter wielded semi-automatic AR-15. The shooter entered the school and pulled the fire alarm while students and faculty were still unaware of his presence. They followed the normal fire drill protocol, and when they entered the hallway the shooter opened fire.

MSJ High School is in a quiet and peaceful town without much crime; this just shows that unfortunately, a shooting can happen anytime and place.

WHHS students had some interesting things to say when asked about just how safe they feel.

“I feel pretty safe considering the precautions that all of the teachers and staff are taking and how heavily they are stressing them,” Alyssa Miller, sophomore, said.

“I’m a little bit more concerned about the safety of the school and the students in it, but I know the teachers and administrators are doing everything they can to keep us safe,” says Sophomore Kaliegh Conroy.

“I am not that concerned with my own personal safety, but I think the schools should be concerned about their security, and be sure to improve upon it,” said Freshman Ben Rostello.

“I feel that this school is not safe,” said Freshman Jessica Tozzi.  “We do not have good enough security. We need to stand together and make a change. Some changes include wearing our school IDS everywhere and if you do not wear it you get a penalty. We should buzz in with our ID if we need to enter the school. “

“I feel that things like this happen and even though it’s scary, we just have to do what is needed to stay as safe as possible and leave the other part for the government to change the weapon law,” said Mariam Moussa, freshman.