One way in and one way out. Single file lines. Harassment from administration.This is a typical morning in modernized South Broward High School. The MSD tragedy where 17 people lost their lives has caused BCPC to introduce the single point entry. This entry is supposed to make the school safer, but the new single point entry is causing more problems than it’s solving.

 With the barricade type entry it’s beginning to feel like a prison. One student, Debra cayemitte compares the entry to an airport entrance. Once the late bell rings then they close the back gate so you have no choice but to go through single point. 

 When you’re even one minute late then it’s only one line for a passes due to single point entry. Students miss half of their class waiting for a pass.I can speak from personal experience that the line is literally wrapped around the office. Sometimes their system is down so they have to handwrite the passes. It’s ironic that they don’t want us to be late but make us later by making us wait for a pass.

Also it doesn’t make it any safer if the only focus is just the front and not the other entries. We have a back gate and side gate that kids can hop over to get on campus. Last year there was a code red called for a student jumping the gate. Security didn’t notice the student’s face so we got put on code red all because he jumped the fence and didn’t want a detention.  I was on edge because I was hearing different stories about two people on campus with a duffle bag. You can also slide under the gate. That still leaves us in danger of anything. They could have secured the back and side gates a little more if they were trying to enforce safety. They could fix to gate to where nobody could slide under and it would be hard to jump over.

We understand our school and school board can’t make gun laws and only want the best for us but this is going overboard. Maybe we can make a system for the students to help administrators spot the signs of somebody who might possibly be exhibiting signs of an active shooter. Just like we the remind app, we could have a number to text and be anonymous. We could tell them if somebody made a possible threat or if they look a little strange.This could be presented as a behavior training, explaining to us how to recognize the signs. I think that’s way more effective than the prison styled system. I don’t believe single point entry is really serving its purpose because unthinkable situations can still occur.