On May 9, State High administrators, teachers, and board members held an open round table discussion on school safety in the black box during all lunch blocks. The goal of the discussion was to hear directly from students regarding safety concerns and suggestions in response to the recent safety threat.
We always want to do as much student engagement as we can,” board president Amy Bader said. “It is a little tricky. We were observing earlier that usually when things are going well in school that’s not when we hear from people. ‘Cause when something worrisome happens or something scary happens then people want to find a way to connect.”
Throughout the black box, four tables were arranged for open conversation, each with a mix of administrators, teachers, and board members. Extra chairs were left open to encourage students to join in and share their thoughts. Notes from these discussions were recorded on large sheets of paper and will be reviewed at upcoming board meetings, helping to incorporate student voices into future decisions.
“In this particular instance, you saw us take notes, all that stuff will get summarized, and the administration’s going to bring the results of their debrief process that they did, and they’re going to present that as a report to the full board. We’ll have a discussion after that,” Bader said.
Senior Genavieve Clayton attended the round table and shared why she believes it is important for students to be a part of the conversation.
“I think it’s important because our school is so big. So much of the communication is online … administration spends a long time crafting their emails to make sure that it is clear and concise, and also sensitive to how the population is going to react,” Clayton said. “I think it can feel like there’s a disconnect then … so I just think it [the open round table] makes it a much more personal thing and also it brings the humanness to the issue because we’re actually talking about a thing that is very real in our community. Which is security and safety and it feels just a lot better to talk about it like this in person rather than just to be a one-way communication.”
While Clayton appreciated the opportunity to speak directly with school leaders she all noted that not all students were able, or willing, to give up their lunch period to attend.
“I think this is great, but I kind of wish there were more students involved. I wish that they had the open round table thing in the PAC or in one of the LGI’s… and there’s administrators at the front with mics. I think it would be really interesting. Almost like a school board type…where it’s more of an open forum of thing that people can raise questions and concerns and that would be cool to do just within the student population,” Clayton said.
One area where student input may come into play is in shaping the policy around the high school’s use of metal detectors. Bader explained that while the addition of the detectors is meant to improve safety, clear guidelines need to be developed.
“Now that we own the metal detectors, we need a metal detector policy. We want to make sure that it’s spelled out how we’re gonna use it. Because while I think this administration is great and we’ll use them consistently and responsibly, if it’s not spelled out, then sometimes things get missed,” Bader said. “We could spell out, like, a minimum number of times a year that it’s expected to be done. So policy is really important for that and I think that hearing how it’s going to impact students helps us inform how we write the policy.”
Clayton hopes that conversations like this will encourage school leaders to continue considering student perspectives.
“I think administrators continuing to think about students’ perspectives and also just what information students need to feel safe is important. I also hope that me, along with other students can just gain a better understanding of what administrators are thinking of doing,” Clayton said.
While the school year is coming to an end, Bader emphasized that the event wasn’t a one-time opportunity for students to be heard.
“I think that these kinds of sessions are really valuable and helpful and the board does actually try to do anywhere from three to four, student work sessions a year … I think having a consistency of doing it, I hope builds some kind of muscle memory for students that there are opportunities,” Bader said.
If you weren’t able to attend this round table, keep an eye out—there will be more opportunities to share your voice in the future.
