Today, West Po students walked into school expecting to pass through the weapons detection system, as they did on Thursday. However, there was no difference at doors 1, 5, and 19 today from three days ago, before the stabbing other than the increased police presence at the front entrance.
A student bringing a knife into school and stabbing another student in the most crowded hallway at the school raises concerns about safety, as voiced by many students and parents. In the wake of the stabbing and with the weapon detection system no longer in place, many students are more concerned for their safety.
Junior Elizabeth Weber was in the 600s hallway, where the student collapsed, during the incident. She said that, “I heard a bunch of commotion outside, and I went to look and there was a guy on the floor covered in blood, with teachers running over to him.” She along with other students want to see change in the way that West Po handles student’s safety. Weber continued on to say, “I do want metal detectors. I feel like that would be a really good idea.”
The pilot program takes a lot of resources, and that was clear to students as there were many police officers and school security officers in the school on Thursday. This would be difficult to maintain if the pilot were to be implemented full-time.
Teachers had to step up during the incident. Weber recalls, “Ms. Vasques and Coach Joe apprehended the assailant and that was great. And of course, there were a whole bunch of teachers running to the kid’s aid.”
“It should have been security. They [teachers] kind of had to act as EMTs. I’m really grateful that they [teachers] did what they did, but they shouldn’t have had to go through that. But, the fact is that they do,” Weber said.
One recommendation voiced by numerous students was to increase the number of security staff members and School Resource Officers (SRO) at the school. According to the National Association of School Resource Officers, it is recommended that there should be one SRO per 1,000 students, with consideration of other factors in the school. Although West Po is a huge school with over 2,700 students spanning across 4 buildings and over a quarter of a mile, there is only 1 SRO.
A joint statement by FCPS school board members Mateo Dunne, Ilryong Moon, and Ryan McElveen supported the national recommendation of SROs. They also called for FCPS to prioritize increasing the number of security assistants to 1:750 students at every middle and high school. This would mean about three security assistants at West Po.
When asked if she thought West Po should have more security officers, Weber said, “Yeah, we definitely should. I think the response time for the security officers and the admin was really bad.” She didn’t see any security officers at the scene, but she did see teachers running over.
Weber said, “I really didn’t want to go to school yesterday because I was still processing it. I feel like I’ve been talking to people, because I think it’s all too much to see when you’re a kid. You should not be exposed to that.”
