It’s happened to all of us before. You might have been entering the music building, coming back from PE, or trying to enter the Quad from the Arts Quad. The result is the same: you end up frustrated, tugging at a stubbornly locked door. Whatever your sin—being late to class, trying to fetch your instrument after a club, or trying to access a bathroom after sitting in the Arts Quad—you’ll end up at the mercy of the doorbell leading into the quad, waiting for the anonymous person in the Welcome Center to let you in, or a passing student or staff member.
IHS is a veritable fortress. During periods and after school, every single door leading outside (with the exception of some of those in the Quad) is locked. In this day and age, the value of security at school is unquestionable. But when these security efforts steadily restrict students’ ability to access their own campus, even while still failing to establish security, something is wrong. In order to create a secure campus that students can easily access, IHS’s systems need to change.
It is clear that security systems hamper students’ ability to access the school. Only one commonly used entrance to the main IHS complex is equipped with a doorbell (at the wall of doors). Students wishing to enter the building can’t do so through any of the other entrances, including that near Q-gym, which is where many students in after-school sports use restrooms and access the water fountain. Nor can students enter through the doors outside of Bliss gym, despite being directly across from the Welcome Center.
Despite these security features, it’s unclear how much this system is actually contributing to IHS’s security or creating an effective barrier. As expected when students confront a thorny problem, many have, out of a described necessity, come up with ways around the doorbell system. I spoke with at least six students who all stated that they had been let into IHS at least five times by a staff member or student inside the building. One stated, “at least two times a week,” and two others stated that they had been let in by another student or staff member at least fifty times over the course of high school, one of them adding “I never get into the building through the door bell. That stuff never works.” Another student agreed: “Never had an instance when the doorbell helped.”
It comes as no surprise that students inside the building would let other students access IHS. There is something approaching a camaraderie among students at IHS—sharing six hours a day, five days a week in the same building tends to do that—and, as many students at IHS see it, it would be cruel to turn your back on someone stuck outside. Not only that, but students see it as unnecessary. As one student I spoke to said, “[I let them in] because lots of people just come in late and there’s no reason to not let them in.” Clearly, the security system is full of holes.
This is a tricky problem to confront, but there are solutions. Installing the doorbell system across all entrances to IHS would be a step in the right direction—what’s the point of having dozens of entrances if students can only access one? The doorbell system should be manned consistently after school as well, as many students are still on campus due to activities and should be able to access lockers, restrooms, water fountains, and other facilities. Many students avoid pressing the doorbell if they are late to school or left campus without approval. I spoke to one student who was trying to enter the building, and he described that upon pressing the doorbell to return inside, an adult came from the Welcome Center to question whether he had signed in (the student had not left campus), instead of simply letting him into the building. Inspiring fear in students to try to access their own campus will not lead to compliance, and this is supported by student testimonials. The student I spoke to now resorts to waiting for another student to let them in.
Another potential solution would be to give students RFID cards that allow them to access the school—working in a similar way as Cornell’s ID card system. This would not only allow them to enter the building without hassle, but could also be integrated into the existing key card system and the sign-in/sign-out system, meaning that every student entering the building would be signed in, rather than just those who choose to enter through the Welcome Center.
If physical ID cards present a security issue, IHS could try launching a mobile app to scan students in—almost every single phone has RFID capabilities, which cannot be accessed if the phone is locked (as it would be if lost). If a student did not have a phone, they could be issued a physical tag, though this would not occur for the majority of students.
IHS cannot be a welcoming environment for students if the building itself serves as a barrier. The current security system not only fails to create an effective barrier, but is also a burden to students, and it is imperative that IHS changes how it approaches building access to create a safe but accessible facility for students.