People usually relate the word “security” with being safe and protected. The phrase “security guard” brings to mind a person who is constantly on alert and actively patrolling the area, keeping the people in the surrounding facilities safe from harm.
Here at MHS, we have a multitude of security guards who have been brought to our campus in the hopes that they will enforce safety measures and make sure all our students are able to attend school safely. However, many students have expressed their concerns regarding the level of protection that they feel the security guards at our school are implementing.
One of the concerns that I’ve heard expressed by students is that the security guards are not performing their jobs up to par. When class is in session, it is assumed that security guards are supposed to be patrolling the grounds and making sure that all students are in the classes that they are supposed to be in. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case.
As a lab assistant, it is often my job to deliver attendance sheets to the office or run errands across campus, and I usually expect to see security guards going around campus, patrolling the area. Instead, I often see security guards parked in their carts next to each other in the shade while they chat amongst themselves.
At times when I forget to bring along my TA pass, I am never stopped by security, whom I usually see parked by a table with students who presumably are supposed to be in class. It seems like the security guards make little to no effort to try and enforce the school policy of attending classes, as I’ve seen them on many occasions approach a table of kids who are cutting class, ask them how they are doing, and then drive off to other parts of campus.
It’s more than a bit disconcerting to me that the level of security at our school is so lax. If a stranger to our school came on campus, it seems likely that security might not even approach them.
Another point that I must bring up is the driving mannerisms of the security guards. Four times out of five that I come across them on campus, they are speeding through the masses of students as if there are no students in their way. The speed at which they are driving at can in no way be safe, as I’ve heard many students talk about instances in which they were almost run over by a golf cart driven by one of the security guards.
A truly memorable sight that inspired me to write this story occurred a couple of days ago. A security guard was driving a golf cart while a student sat in the back seat. The student’s face looked a bit red, as if he wasn’t feeling quite well. The security guard accelerated the cart up the ramp towards the school library at unreasonable speeds, and the student consequently fell off the cart and rolled a bit down the ramp. The student got up and appeared to be fine, but the fact that the security guard merely looked backwards and did not attempt to help the student or make sure he was okay really disturbed me.
The way the security guards drive so carelessly around campus is clearly unsafe and provides a bad example to the students. They should be more careful in the way they drive, and make sure to drive at safer, slower speeds. As security guards, it is their job to keep us students safe and protected. However, according to the responses of many students, it seems as if they are instead contributing to the unsafe environment.