Students may have noticed, either from announcements or club advisors, an emphasis on leaving the building after school. This safety procedure recognizes that the high school is a community building, but requires students to be supervised by a club advisor, security guard, or other district adult if they are to remain in the building after school.
Officer Matt Hertlein, State High’s School Resource Officer, explained that the procedure was prompted in 2024.
“In 2024, a couple people…came in to try to tour the school and kind of on their own, they just found a side door that was unlocked,” Hertlain said. “So ever since then [administration wanted] to make sure all the doors are locked and make sure we have a Standing Stone Security at one of the entrances if that’s where people are coming in.”
State High’s Principal, Laura Tobias, also noticed a shift in the building’s use after school.
“We started noticing more and more kids staying after school, probably in the fall, I would say, when we realized, okay, maybe we hire another security guard, which we did so that kids could be in a space,” Tobias said.
Tobias explained how this shift in students’ presence after school was most likely caused by the gap between activities and the late bus. After their activities, students would have to wait about an hour for the late bus, which comes around 6:20 pm.
“What was happening were students were found all over the building. And so, that raises two questions. One, our janitorial staff couldn’t clean effectively in areas where they were trying to get kids out of. And two, it’s a safety issue. Where are you in the building? What’s happening after-school hours? We want to make sure our whole community is safe,” Tobias said.
“I think some students just think, you know, it’s your school, and sometimes they think they can just kind of roam freely,” Hertlein added. “A lot of times we’ll be made aware of something, or someone was in an area they weren’t supposed to be, and honestly, we have over 200 cameras in the school, so then we go back and look…we’ll find out who it is and just talk to them.”
The janitorial staff works to clean the massive building all night, but this task gets more difficult when students are in the sections of the building custodians need to clean. Ensuring students are out of the way is the second main reason for the safety procedure, with the primary reason being safety.
“Safety is paramount,” Tobias said. “Everyone wants to be able to come to school and know that the building is safe. If we don’t lock it down, like our outside doors, and we just let everybody come in whenever they want, it feels uncomfortable because we just don’t know.”
These fears are especially relevant after last year’s safety threat, in which an individual allegedly plotted a shooting at State High.
With these concerns, conversations detailing a new safety procedure were sparked. Students couldn’t be left alone and allowed to wander the school, so they were told to stay in the HUB area. However, this increase in students in the HUB after school, whether that be studying or hanging out with friends, prompted administrators to hire another security guard to supervise.
Club advisors were notified about the procedure and told to encourage students to either leave the building or relocate to the HUB. Students involved in clubs and activities can still use the school building, but must always be with an advisor. Students can still use the library after school on Wednesdays, and can use the HUB.
However, exceptions to this procedure can be made for specific events, such as SCASD Reads. An announcement was made over the loudspeaker late in the school day on March 4, instructing students to vacate the building for SCASD Reads.
“When we had the curriculum showcase…it didn’t register,” Tobias said. “[Students] need to be out of the building because it takes the whole space. And then this becomes a parking nightmare as well, because all the people from the community are coming. We realized that on short notice.”
This caused mild frustration within clubs, which were unaware that the building was going to be “locked down” and had to change plans at the last minute, not knowing if the normal exceptions applied in that specific circumstance.
“I think there’s maybe a handful of those kind of events throughout the year that would involve that part of the building where we would need people to leave so we could set up,” Tobias ensured.
The procedure has not caused any major hiccups and has successfully limited access to certain parts of the building at certain times.
“I’m on board with it,” Hertlein said, referring to the procedure. “I mean, because we don’t want people, you know, to go wherever they want anytime they want…we don’t want people going in classrooms, stealing stuff, or leaving stuff, anything like that.”
Tobias emphasized her goal of a safe and welcoming school environment.
“I think the school is a really important part of a student’s life. And I want kids to be here. I want them to have a safe place…We just need to make sure that there’s supervision,” Tobias said.
State High’s after-school safety procedure has evolved to accommodate student, janitorial, and safety needs, balancing the desire for the school to be a welcoming environment for the community and a safe, clean space for students to learn and grow.
