Almost two months after Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; all the students are back at school and all of the victims are out of the hospital. With the transition back to a regular school year; the school implemented many new security policies. The new security includes clear backpacks, ID badges, limited places to enter the school, as well as an increased police presence. The school administration is considering further increasing the measures even more, potentially adding metal detectors at the school entrance points.
Students are not happy about these new measures, many feeling as if they have lost any sense of normalcy surrounding their school lives. Many are pointing out that when Nikolas Cruz committed the crime, he was not a current student at the school. The students say the heightened security makes school feel like a prison, and they are not welcoming these measures, saying they feel it is invading their privacy and that they will never regain a sense of normalcy if all of these measures stay.
Whether the measures stay or go, I think we can all agree these students are so strong, and we should help them feel safe at school while trying to find the balance between airport level security and feeling secure in your classroom. The student-activists are breaking boundaries, and ultimately we need to honor what they want to help them ease into the difficulties of returning every day to the scene of the tragic crime.