Generally, 59% of students around the world say that they don’t feel safe in school. What about Argo?

It is known that worldwide, people generally don’t feel safe in schools, especially in America. School safety and security tends to seem an issue for many students in Argo. Some people say there’s too much security and they’re overly strict, while others say there’s not enough security.

Fatima Suhail, a sophomore at Argo, believes we should improve security in school. “Well, I do like that there are people at every corner, but they’re not trained. They’re just regular staff members that don’t have anything to protect us,” says Suhail.

A recent study shows that higher security levels in school can lead to lower test scores, typically in math. Jason Jabri, the man who assisted in conducting this research, reports, “Heightened security reduces test scores in math, reduces the number of students attending college and increases suspensions.”

Both point of views on this issue are very equally weighed, especially for students here at Argo. “I’d say I’m pretty comfortable with the security here,” says Minna Suleiman, an Argo sophomore. “I like seeing the different security guards and hall monitors all around school.”

Not only does security and safety seem to be an issue for students here, but possibly even for bus drivers. Fatima Suhail takes a stance on this issue and claims that “Bus drivers can also feel unsafe. Obviously, it’ll be students getting on in the afternoon, but in the morning, a random person could get on and say they’re 16 years old. The bus drivers need to feel safe, too.”

It’s very known that we usually have a bunch of security guards near the lunchrooms, which may be unnecessary. “Near the 2nd floor English bathrooms, there’s a lot of crowds in between periods. There’s always one security guard trying to gain control of the situation… we can do better with that situation and get more guards over there to separate the mayhem,” says Suhail.

Overall, students should feel that they’re receiving the security needed to feel safe enough to even attend school every day.