Students have a strong sense of security on campus
AJ De Las Alas
Staff Writer
On Wednesday, November 4th, a student from UC Merced stabbed four other students on the university’s campus. A few weeks before this, eight students were killed during a school shooting that took place in Umpqua Community College in Oregon.
These violent events drew attention to the safety of schools in the United States. At American, the administrators stress the importance of school safety.
“People expect the school to be a safe place,” Principal Musto said. “This is the place where students live, play, grow up, and have a good time.”
Some students, like senior Simrin Makhijani, feel secure at American and are not fazed by the recent violent events in other schools.
“The events on the news don’t bother me, because I feel like these types of things would not happen at American,” Makhijani said. “I’ve been here for four years and the school is really safe in my opinion.”
The safe atmosphere on campus can be attributed to the administration’s enforcement on the school’s policies and safety protocol.
“We’ve done presentations to all of our students last year and the beginning of this year about what they should do in unthinkable situations,” Mr. Musto said. “If something really bad happens, students are allowed to leave campus. We want to stress this to students: if you can’t run away, you can hide or fight back.”
The school’s safety procedures are successful in ensuring the students can learn in a safe environment. Fortunately, nothing highly concerning has happened at American.
“For the most part, the school is a very safe place,” Officer Candler, the school’s security officer, said. “The administration does a good job of handling most situations, and I assist them and deal with fights and things off-campus to help maintain the school’s safety.”
Overall, the students at American have a high sense of security when on campus.
“I feel safer at American than in Thornton Junior High,” freshman Claire Saul said. “At this school, there are less fights and more supervision, which is always good.”
Even students who are new to Fremont agree that American is not a dangerous place.
“I moved to Fremont a few months ago,” Preetham Srinivasan said. “It’s my freshman year at American, and I feel much safer here than at my old school in Santa Clara.”
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