Carly Gaspari
Theme Editor
On Nov. 20, Mira Costa students and staff returned to campus after the school closures on Nov. 18 and Nov. 19 due to threats posted on the app Yik Yak. During the two days that school was cancelled, the Manhattan Beach Police Department, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District and the Costa administration formulated a document detailing the school’s re-opening policies.
In a series of emails sent to Costa parents, the administration sent the new security protocol to Costa families before the students returned to school on Nov. 20. According to Principal Dr. Ben Dale, the measures are meant to ease fears and to ensure campus well-being.
“Although the security precautions are temporary, Costa will change from these events,” Dale said. “We are taking everything one day at a time.”
On the Thursday of return, students were encouraged to not bring backpacks to school, and those who did were subject to searches by security guards and Dr. Dale. In addition, entry points to and from campus have been limited to four main entry points.
“There is a protocol for dealing with any type of incident that can be a potential concern for the safety of students on a campus,” School Resource Officer Jesse Garcia said.
Dale says that Costa’s re-opening procedures have been running relatively smoothly. The school plans to implement some of the new measures into the school’s normal safety procedures; however, some measures, such as bag checking, will no longer be necessary as the threats have become less prevalent. In addition, Dale is in the process of hiring two new security guards for the west side of campus.
“Costa could benefit from the limited security access,” junior Caroline Hanna said. “Before the threats happened, anyone could sneak on and off of campus unnoticed, so the new procedures make our campus much safer.”
According to Dale, the main goal of the new security procedures is to make the school appear different from how it was before the threats occurred. Adding more security to the school would change its atmosphere, making it safer.
“We wanted to go through with the security measures even though a potential suspect has been apprehended because people still had concerns about coming back to school,” Dale said. “Students needed to know that we plan to do business a little bit differently.”
Although the re-opening procedures were integrated for safety, according to junior Ben La Duke, many students are displeased by the new rules and feel that they are unrealistic and an inconvenience to their daily routines.
“I am appreciative of the administration’s effort in creating these new policies,” La Duke said. “However, locking certain gates has made passing periods extremely difficult, considering the amount of students trying to pass through the same areas now that the alternative ones are blocked.”
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