Hart High School has been doing a good job containing Covid during the school year so far. Administrators and campus security have started checking Crisis Go to make sure students don’t have any Covid symptoms, and have also set many guidelines for students to follow while they’re on campus to keep Covid at bay. However, there has been a problem with their security checks, which make some people concerned for their safety. At Hart, everyone has to show their ID and Crisis Go authentication at the gate before entering in the morning. This seems like a helpful background check to make sure that only Hart students enter campus and it provides more safety to the students, but not if it isn’t being properly used.

Recently, a student who graduated last year was able to come on campus during lunch by showing her old ID from the 2020-2021 school year. The year on her ID was clearly visible, and yet she was still allowed on campus. A couple days later, a senior girl entered campus earlier at seven a.m. on a late start Wednesday. The back gate was open, but there was no one to check her ID or her Crisis Go, so she was able to walk on the campus unnoticed. In both situations, neither of the people entering the campus were dangerous, but it easily could have been. If someone wasn’t a student and wanted to bypass the ID checks, they could come onto the campus early in the morning. Not only that, but another option could be stealing someone’s ID and coming during lunch. No one would check to see if said person was actually a student.

As a student, I usually feel pretty safe on the Hart campus, but things like these make me a bit nervous about how safe the security checks really are. We know the checks are bothersome for both the students and the teachers that have to check kids in, but we all know the checks are being done for our safety. If the checks aren’t being done right, how much safer can our school really be compared to a school that doesn’t do any checks?

Response from Hart administration:

Dear Editor,

We are writing to you today in response to the article, “Is Hart’s campus safe”, from September 14th. In this article, the author questions whether current safety protocols are actually helping to keep Hart’s campus safe. As the administrators responsible for overseeing the safety of our campus, we strongly say YES, they are!

The author of the article in question refers to two students being able to get on to campus without properly checking in at one of our gates in the morning. While this did happen, the author does not mention that school Administration was aware of these incidents nor the fact that they occurred prior to the full implementation of CrisisGo I.D. scanning. Although we do our very best to completely secure the perimeter of the school, a 100% perfect system for doing so does not exist anywhere in the Hart District, including at Hart HS. Thankfully, we have numerous interventions in place to quickly react to situations where security may be compromised. These interventions include:

• Hart’s Student Care Line where students and parents can provide tips of inappropriate or dangerous behavior.
• Campus security cameras that allow us to monitor all areas of the campus at all hours of the day.
• Our wonderful staff of campus supervisors who are actively monitoring all points of entrance to the campus.
• The amazing faculty and staff of Hart HS who see something and say something. These individuals always keep their eyes out for the safety of our students.
• Hart’s School Resource Officer Deputy Guzman who is on campus daily.

The Hart Administrative Team would like to assure all students that campus safety is our number one priority. When problems arise, they are dealt with immediately. However, we do all need to work together to ensure the continued safety of one another. Please, if you see something that ever gives you concern, say something. You can come to the office and tell an administrator, you can let a teacher, counselor, or staff member know, or you can use the student care line by texting a message to 661-383-1722.

Thank you!

Hart HS Administration