This school year PHS has taken the initiative to add new safety features in various areas of the school and reinforce previous safety measures to keep students safe.
One of the most noticeable safety improvements is the new yellow bollards now at the front of the school and throughout the parking lot. The bright yellow color makes them hard to miss even at nighttime. These bollards help protect against car accidents and create a clear barrier between students and vehicles. On top of that, they protect Palatine High School’s infrastructure itself.
Another pretty noticeable change in safety features this school year has been the absence of the orange blocks that used to prop each classroom door open. These orange door stops had a magnet on one side and were able to be stuck into the doorframe to keep the door slightly ajar. When using these blocks, students were able to easily use the bathroom or water fountain without disrupting class.
However, a new D211 district policy was put in place, causing the orange door stops to be prohibited. Many students and teachers may think it is a pain to have to open the locked door every time someone needs to enter into the classroom. Nevertheless, the absence of these orange blocks is actually a crucial safety precaution. It makes it so that teachers know exactly who is coming into the classroom at all times, providing an extra layer of protection for everyone inside the room.
Furthermore, another important previous safety measure that is a part of students’ everyday lives is still being enforced and that is scanning into school each and every day. Even though it may seem redundant to students and slow them down in the morning, there are a variety of reasons why scanning into PHS is important.
“Because you want to make sure you know if the kids are here in school, they’re not ditching,” Amy Tanner, a security team member, said when asked about the importance of scanning into school each day. “So let’s say your mom calls and they’ll be like ‘Is my kid here?’, it lets us know exactly what time he scanned in.”
By scanning in, it lets both the school and parents know if their child is at school that day. Or if they are skipping when they are not supposed to be. Scanning into school also helps keep attendance in check and lets any staff member know where a specific student may be in the building at all times.
Additionally, Palatine takes great pride in maintaining a safe school environment overall.
“A for the students, B for the teachers that are in the building, C for everyone basically,” Steven Drews, another member of the security team, said.
Palatine has a whole Safety and Security team on campus at all times, making sure PHS does not have to face safety concerns. They ensure that students have their IDs, that the school doors are locked, and most importantly that no one is entering the school that should not be.
“They’re all retired law enforcement,” Drews said when commenting about the safety team. “Bring some experience, another set of eyes.”
Palatine’s safety team is a crucial part of the school’s atmosphere.
“It isn’t just about preventing harm, it’s about building trust with the students,” Tanner said.
The safety team is working non stop to not only keep each and every student safe, but also provide them with someone to go to that they trust if any issues were to arise.
