Colten Katzen is a senior and submitted his essay to The Talon for reprint.

You’re so close to being late to school. You have Mrs. Short’s class first period and you run to the 100 hallway doors and they’re locked. Last year the school let fear from the Newtown Shooting influence their decision to reenact an unnecessary policy in the name of security. The controversial decision disallows any student from going in or out the 100 or 200 hall doors at any time during school hours. This seems like a decision caused by fear that realistically doesn’t keep us much safer and is a nuisance to the students.

I start to wonder, how do those doors remaining locked actually protect us? What good does it really do to lock only one door of your house while keeping the others open? It’s the exact same principle with the school’s decision to lock a few exits and leave other doors, like by the portables, open. If they say it’s for our protection, that’s just ignorant. It was a decision controlled by fear.

Those circumstances make me begin to question our values as Americans. It seems we are giving in to the shooters and what they wanted when we began to let fear control us. Now I can’t promise our school is completely safe, but I also can’t promise the safety at the movies or at sporting events or anywhere else. There comes a point when it must be realized that if we live in fear of every possible danger, no matter how unlikely, we may never truly live.

It may seem that the doors are not too large an inconvenience, but the little problems they cause add up. You move just a little too slowly one morning, and you’re unable to use the door right next to your class, and now that last tardy landed you a spot in ISS, that’s just frustrating. When you have Mrs. Romero’s class 3rd period and have to circumvent the entire school to make it to athletics, that’s just annoying. These ordeals are something students shouldn’t have to deal with, even if they claim it’s for your ‘protection.’

It seems obvious that those doors being locked again was motivated by fear, yet it fails to protect us and is simply an annoyance. Students should not abide in silence but let their voices be heard by the administration and the school board.

Edited by:  Tanner Davenport and Maddie Moseley, Senior Editors

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