When students and faculty returned from winter break, classroom door locks had been updated to a more secure version. 

“The school policy is that the doors have to stay locked,” Facilities Assistant Principal Wendell Joubert said. “The locks were changed to make it easier for teachers. It takes human error out of it.” 

Locks can no longer be unlocked. 

“Now teachers don’t have to worry about unlocking their doors and locking them back,” Joubert said.

The locks were not changed because of the October incident. 

“A lot of people think it’s because of what happened in October,” Joubert said. “It wasn’t that. It was that we were in an older building and they were supposed to do that anyway.” 

The doors had the original locks put on in 2005, when the school opened. 

“We were supposed to do the lock renovations last summer but Covid made that difficult,”  Joubert said. “All the newer high schools and elementary schools already had them.” 

The choice to leave doors unlocked is no longer an option. 

 “I’m used to propping doors open because we have so many doors in the theater,” Theater Director KennethFudge said. “I am having to do more work to manage all the doors.” 

The updated locks require some teachers to change their daily habits. 

“It’s safer to keep the doors locked,”  Fudge said. “Even though I see and understand why they did this, I’m frustrated that we cannot leave our doors open.” 

In most classes, teachers have a designated student who answers the door. 

“I sit in front of the classroom because its closest to the teacher and I’m a teachers’ pet,”

freshmen Sarah Nguyen said. “So I’m the door person in three classes..“

Students often help with opening the door.

“Sometimes the teacher is all the way across the room, and looks at me, so I have to open the door,” Nguyen said. “I do look at the teacher to see if they nod, but normally the teacher is busy.”

With students coming in tardy to class, the door is often opened repeatedly throughout class. 

“It’s worse in my 8th period, which is my endorsement, Principles of Human Service,” Nguyen said. “Yesterday I had to get up at least 10 times.”

Students must have the teacher or a student open the door from inside the room.  

“It’s tiring for me to get up and open the door all the time but I’m glad about it,” Nguyen said. “It’s a safety precaution and it’s really nice that they’re implementing it.”