Photo Credit: Eric Evans

Despite M-A not being very high-security, 70% of students feel "totally safe" at school.

After word spread of the frightening attack on August 24 at Hillsdale High, parents and students alike questioned their own safety. Sequoia Union High School District, along with other districts in the area, responded appropriately to the incident, but many Menlo-Atherton students still appear to be in the dark about their own safety.

In response to the attack on Hillsdale High, there are several upcoming meetings to discuss school safety. According to Ms. Kennel, Menlo Atherton’s Administrative Vice-Principal, there will be a safety meeting on October 12 where the committee will revise the school safety plans. Also planned is a police meeting with all the K-12 schools in the area, where administrators hope to collaborate and discuss new ideas regarding security. In a recent staff meeting, it was suggested that the school invest in Columbine locks. Developed after the tragic Columbine massacre, these locks allow doors to be locked from the inside. The cost would be about $200,000 for the school.

Despite upcoming changes, Kennel believes “we have a very solid emergency plan”. M-A works closely with the Atherton Police Department and the school has a diligent security staff that actively patrols the campus to prevent fights, theft, and possible intruders from coming on campus. Kennel explained that most of the people who come on campus are former students, and that the school does not really have a problem with intruders. Even so, there are occasional issues with theft, including car break-ins and stolen cells phones. She notes that staff are trying to enforce the necessity of visitor passes, to ensure that people who are not usually on campus are identified. In these sorts of situations, Kennel hopes that “just being vigilant” will go a long way.

Nonetheless, Menlo-Atherton still practices the infamous “lockdown” drill, where students bunker down in their classrooms to practice emergency conduct. The first lockdown drill is scheduled for October 27. The school also has cameras installed in various locations about the campus, which can be helpful in determining suspects if something is caught on camera. In addition, every classroom has emergency supplies in preparation for fire evacuations or other such disaster situations.

In a recent poll, 49% people thought M-A would be able to handle an attack like the one at Hillsdale, while 51% thought it wouldn’t be handled well. In another poll that asked how safe people felt at Menlo-Atherton, 70% said that they felt “totally safe”, 26% said that they sometimes felt unsafe, and 4% said they felt unsafe. (Each out of 100 people)

Overall, students do not have much to worry about thanks to the strong security program. Kennel states that “if we cross that bridge, I believe we’re prepared to deal with it.”