Cam High Enclosed: A Safe Haven or Prison?

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Serena Avila

The security fences were installed during the 2020-2021 school year, presumably to mitigate the potential threat of an intruder coming on campus.

What do you think of when looking at the Cam High’s campus? Classes? Stress? Imprisonment? Some people see the latter due to the new fences which surround the school since the 2020 – 2021 school year. These fences keep the school enclosed, opposite to the seemingly open nature of it before the installation of any fences.

This choice has clearly come with some backslash, people have said the Cam High campus looks more like a prison. “It’s not a good look and doesn’t look and doesn’t help within dangerous situations” said Lillian Weir, a freshman at Cam High. “It is the worst when locked out [of] the portables.” It is agreed upon that the fences can keep people from entering, but the fact it also makes it harder to leave the school campus in an emergency seems to be what concerns people. Another factor to take in mind is the look of the new fences, with a dark color and thin straight bars seen across, it can be said it does look quite eerie.

But maybe some people do feel the positive effect from the establishing of the fences. After all the most likely reason as to why the fences were changed and upgraded is because of safety concerns and to be able to manage the people that enter and leave. When interview about it, Giovanni Ramirez, a Junior at Cam High said “I feel safer, it’s more comfortable knowing that no one can come in while I’m trying to learn, I prefer these over the others from before because of security.”

To give some of my opinion, I feel like the fences do indeed help somewhat, however they still have some flaws. On some pros I’d agree is that, yes it limits the intake and release of students from the campus. In the other hand I’d agree that it doesn’t give out a good look to the campus, and it wouldn’t really help in certain scenarios regarding in-school threats as it would limit how many students can leave campus, and this could jeopardize students that are located in the heart of the school where the exits are far away.

Overall there is an issue with how the school has tried to enforce security measures. An open or closed campus have their benefits and flaws, some worse than others. But it is up to the public and you to complain, seek change or keep silence.