What some students may think is nothing more than a kind act of courtesy could lead to an in school suspension. Never encouraged, the opening or propping of doors on campus for anyone, including students, is an offense that can lead to consequences students may not know about.

“It’s a zero tolerance policy meaning if you get caught propping a door open, it will be reported,” assistant principal Jason Harris said. “Then we go back and look at the surveillance video, if we see the offense on the video we will call the offender in. The first first time, it’s automatic one day ISS and then from there going forward, it increases to ISS or OSS, but we haven’t had repeat offenders.”

In addition to the requirement students wear ID badges at all times on campus, the door enforcement policy is rooted in campus security.

“One of the ways of increasing the safety of the school is to ensure that all doors stay locked and closed at all times,”  Harris said. “This is in order to help to keep intruders from coming in, so if a door propped or opened, then it’s giving easy access to anybody who would like to come on campus and want to cause harm to staff members or students.”

Sophomore and drill team line member Medha Gupta has first hand experience with the policy and possible consequences.

“Before school started after a drill team morning practice, I let a drill team line member in after after they went to their car to get something,” Gupta said. “They checked and saw me open the door in the cameras and I got called into the AP office. I was really scared because I didn’t really know I was doing something wrong because they had on an ID badge and Red Rhythm practice clothes on. An ISS also would get me benched in drill team.”

School resource officer Hubbard believes that the most threatening thing about opening doors for people may not be the person that one is letting in, but their intentions. Although they may attend this school, that doesn’t exempt them from being a threat.  

“We know that students just want to be helpful,” Hubbard said. “When somebody is standing in the doorway behind a locked door, naturally you want to let them in. But, you never know the mindset of that person who is coming in, even if they’re a student.”

Making another student walk to the front of the school may seem unnecessary, but Harris states that there are protocols students need to follows.

“We have processes in place and procedures, students need report to the main entrance, which  is the front office, when school starts,” he said. “Once you start blowing up the expectations and procedures, then protocol really starts to unravel and it’s hard to hold anyone accountable.”