Art by Lizzy Tatlow

After the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT, KSD began reviewing safety policies to ensure nothing has been missed with regard to protecting the district’s students. At KHS, safety procedure changes may take place within the next year if the new policies are approved by the school board.

“I think our campus is a nightmare when it comes to safety and security,” Mike Wade, junior principal, said. “By that I mean that it’s difficult to maintain the safety because of the open campus.”

In other words, Wade does not necessarily believe KHS is unsafe because of current policies, but he thinks KHS faces a unique set of challenges with security, KHS has an open campus design covering 43 acres, and there is a total of 37 entrances into the buildings, more than can be consistently monitored. Walking counselors now cover each main entrance–Essex, Dougherty Ferry and Chopin–all day. Seven more doors are locked at all times. In an ideal situation, Wade said he would have only the three main doors as unlocked entry points.

KHS is also planning to adopt a new policy during intruder situations. Instead of the past method, to go into lockdown in classrooms and wait, KHS hopes to implement a plan called ALICE, an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate. Under this plan, which is supported by the Department of Homeland Security, students would be informed of the presence of an intruder, go into lockdown in their classrooms, listen for information about the intruder’s whereabouts, counter–distract or fight–the intruder if he or she should come to their classroom, then run. Also in the ‘inform’ step is the idea that if the intruder were in a separate part of the school, other sections far away from him or her would be able to evacuate.

Each Kirkwood school has a ‘rendezvous’ point, where students and staff are supposed to go if there is a serious danger at school. For KHS, that point is Trinity Lutheran Church on 820 Lockett Road. Chad Walton, school resource officer, said to go there if possible in the case of a dangerous event at the school. If it’s not possible, Walton said one should inform someone of their whereabouts.

While these new plans may seem drastic or intricate compared to the old procedures, they are not meant to make students afraid something scary will happen. Instead, according to Wade and Walton, they are meant to make KHS an even safer place for everyone.

The state of Missouri is perhaps taking more drastic measures with the proposal of House Bill 70 by Mike Kelley, representative from District 127. If the bill becomes law, teachers with a Concealed Carried Weapon permit would be encouraged to carry concealed weapons in public schools. According to Kelley, a strong defense is sometimes the best offense and intrusions would be less likely to occur if the intruder thought someone was armed.

“Having a sign that says ‘Gun Free Zone’ is basically saying ‘no one here will defend themselves, come shoot here,’” Kelley said.

Kelley believes schools should be better equipped to protect the students they serve. Some critics point out that it could be counterproductive to give out more guns to stop gun violence, but Kelley thinks it will not be a danger.

“Laws are obeyed by law-abiding citizens. Criminals are not law-abiding citizens. Guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens will never be a problem,” Kelley said.

While Wade thinks Kirkwood could use another school resource officer, he does not necessarily support teachers at KHS having guns on campus.

“What we don’t want to happen and what always happens is to over-respond,” Wade said. “I just think we need to be very thoughtful about how we go about this, and I don’t want teachers walking around with guns.”

In recent weeks, the gun safety debate has heated up. Here is a timeline of recent events:

Dec. 14, 2012

In a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, 26 students and staff were killed, prompting nation-wide discussion about gun laws and school safety procedures.