Twenty seconds is a rather insignificant amount of time. It probably takes you longer to stop and tie your shoes, or wash your hands. But 19.5 seconds is how long it takes to walk from the unlocked doors outside the library, to the locked ones just down the stairs by the english hallway at a reasonable pace.
What is the point of having a set of doors locked when an open set is so nearby?
Having some of the exterior doors locked at all does not increase the safety of our school in any way when some doors remain unlocked. This new procedure adds more inconvenience for students trying to move around the school than the safety it provides is worth.
Have certain sets of doors locked during passing periods has led to massive clumps and traffic jams of students in the hallways as we are all funneled into the same spots. There are students that are unable to get to their classes on time as a result of these doors being locked and the subsequent traffic.
“When going from video production to metal fabrication, I am always late. We usually would go outside and cut straight across, but the doors are locked, so we have to go around through the hallways” senior Alex Pham said.
The doors cause not only a massive inconvenience for the movement of students around campus, but they provide an almost negligible amount of security. Locking only certain doors is like being in a sinking boat full of holes, clogging half of them, and believing you have saved the ship. There are still too many ways into the school for this to increase security.
Additionally, many of the doors that are locked are propped open by a stray dumbell or rock, making the locking of them completely pointless.
When asked about the decision behind which doors would be locked Principal Sean Martin explained that “We also know that between classes, there is heavy traffic flow in the hallways, which is why the doors between the commons and the library are open.”
So while credit must be given to the administration for trying to increase security and make people feel safer, we must also recognize that the locking of only certain doors is an ineffective method and is not worth the inconvenience it causes for students and staff trying to move about the school as there are still so many other entrances.
Liberty High School administration needs to commit to one idea. Either all the doors need to be locked, and we need to make sure they aren’t propped open, or we should simply open them all up again. Being in the middle provides not much more than an illusion of safety, and a lot of inconvenience.