Students and staff at Roosevelt High School have noticed heightened security procedures this school year specifically. Changes include no longer using the portables and more locked doors during school hours.
When Roosevelt Principal Tami Brewer was asked about the increase of security at Roosevelt, she stated: “The District has asked schools to work towards securing our perimeters at our building levels. One of our steps was to remove portables as best we could, bringing students in the building walls.”
However, students at Roosevelt have not unanimously noticed an increase in security at Roosevelt. According to a survey conducted by The Roosevelt News in October, 40% of students said they noticed stricter security this year, 30% are unsure, and 30% haven’t noticed any changes in security. The survey was taken by 22 students.
Roosevelt has added a new attendance rule this year; if a student is late to class by more than 10 minutes, they are marked absent. Brewer confirmed this rule, “The rule is actually based on district policy. … All I’m asking is that Roosevelt follows the policy.” The rule is a continuation of an accumulation of rules Seattle Public Schools has implemented, however, it does not relate to security at Roosevelt — but is rather an attendance policy.
Another attendance policy Roosevelt has are hall passes. Recently, students have noticed an increase in the enforcement of hall passes, “But it does not appear to have been uniformly adopted,” said Brewer.
50% of surveyed students said they are “always” given hall passes by their teachers when they leave the room for any reason; 50% said their teachers “don’t always” give them hall passes. In addition, one student told TRN they have been stopped in the hallways by a Roosevelt staff member asking for at hall pass or their intentions of being out of class.
However, Brewer said the recent implementation of stricter hall pass enforcement is not a security issue, but rather an attendance issue. Brewer stated, “Attendance is a data we have been tracking. … It’s really about communication to the whole school. It’s simpler to have a true, real way to identify students who are going to the bathroom or are doing school business.”
Christopher Davis, Roosevelt security guard, said he is “not in charge of monitoring hall passes or sending kids back to class.” Davis said that “it’s the administration’s job.” Davis mostly monitors locking building doors, who enters the building, and what their purpose is there.
Along with locking doors, Brewer said the Roosevelt portables are not currently being used, and two of them have already been removed. The other two are planned to be removed during winter break in December.
Brewer said the reason for the removal of the portables is that they are no longer necessary, as “the whole idea of portables were temporary until [SPS] rolled up enrollment at Lincoln.” Since Roosevelt’s population went down, there is no longer a surplus number of students and therefore, there is no purpose for portables anymore.
Amy Noji, Roosevelt English teacher, has noticed an increase in security and said she is grateful for it. Noji stated her concern of safety at Roosevelt, “[Davis] and maybe administrators, who are all new, are seeing adults walk through our building who have nothing to do here. They have no reason to be here.” She is concerned about the safety of herself and everyone in the school and afraid of who may be able to get in to cause harm.
According to Noji, at the beginning of the school year, she and other teachers were told they needed to get their picture taken and get an identification card because of the stricter policies during the 2022-23 school year. She then said, “I used to work late in the portables, and I used to worry when I would leave there, what could happen. So, I’m glad about it; there [are] seeming to be more checks.”
An anonymous Running Start student said she sits in the Commons taking online classes on her computer. She said at the beginning of the year, teachers would approach her to ask what she was doing and if she was in Running Start — but after she told them she was taking a class, they eventually stopped asking her.
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