Like many institutions across America, Bethel is revamping its approach to security in response to a national increase in school disturbances and heightened tensions. Most of you have already experienced a few of our new school policies, but here is what you need to know. 

At the start of the day at Bethel, you are now only permitted to use the front entrance or a door in the courtyard, a change from previous years when anyone could enter through any doorway. Right inside both of these entryways are new metal detectors. Before walking through the detectors, you will pass off your Chromebooks and bags for inspection.

Last year, the US Department of Education released a report on the “Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in US Public Schools in 2019-20.” According to this report, only 8% of schools surveyed required daily metal detector checks. By adding metal detectors, Bethel has joined the ranks of the few public schools with this tool in place. 

School Resource Officer Dye shared, “I do think that they [metal detectors] are effective, … [but] students are still adjusting.” 

Our new metal detectors are the most visible sign of the change in policies, but they extend further than the doorway. Another major change is that teachers have been provided with key fobs to open certain designated doors. Using fobs will better enable security to monitor who is entering and leaving Bethel, and hopefully prevent suspicious individuals from wandering in. 

Principal Travis Oliver revealed, “We are giving them [teacher’s] key fobs to four main entrances of the school, so they won’t have to look for those sets of keys anymore.” He added,  “The system registers who’s coming in and out of the building, what time they went in, and allows them to access the building at certain locations.” 

Immediate reactions among students to the new, heightened security measures have been mixed. Everyone agrees on the need for improvements to our security infrastructure. So some feel the new measures are long overdue, while others question their usefulness. 

“We need more heavy set security,” said a student at Bethel. “I feel like they [the metal detectors] are pointless; they are not effective.” Another student disagreed, sharing, “The metal detectors can make you later, but for what it’s worth it makes the school safer.” 

Like the students, the security staff too have expressed happiness with the direction of the new security measures. Since they are on the front lines, their feedback is encouraging.  “To my knowledge, we have more help now than last year,” remarked Valentine, a security guard here at Bethel. He did acknowledge, “We do need to put the foot down more and be firm with the students.”

The first and foremost goal of the new security measures is to keep the students and staff of Bethel safe, to protect our learning environment. Some members of the Bethel community have reservations, but most are cautiously optimistic that these changes will make a real difference.