The administration has decided that the middle-school and high-school car loops along with other gates around campus will not be unlocked before 3:30 p.m. on regular school days and 2:15 p.m. on early release days. 

“Since the release of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas report, there were a number of lessons learned about the shooting and what could happen,” Principal Rick Fleming said. “In an effort to keep campuses safer, we want to keep the gates locked during the day.”

Fleming said the school is required to hire people to watch all gates, and a limited number of entry points will help mitigate that issue.

“The problem is having someone man those gates,” he said. “We’re hoping only one single point of entry out there that we’ll be able to better monitor who comes on campus.”

Fleming said the district made them enforce this policy.

“It was a mandate from the district that said if gates are going to be left open, they have to be manned,” he said. “We don’t have the manpower to have people sit at the gate and let people in and out, so we had [to keep the gates] locked.”

The school always has had a problem with parents parking in the residences near the school, and Fleming said the issue will not be worsened by having the gates opened later.

“I don’t think it will change,” he said. “I think it’ll stay the same. We’re hoping that people will start coming to pick up their [children] closer to the time that we dismiss.”

Sophomore Dylan Bissessarsingh hasn’t noticed an impact made by the gates opening later.

“It doesn’t [impact my pickup],” he said. “Not yet anyway.”

By Michael Stewart