MARYSVILLE Checkpoint Charlie is coming to Marysville-Pilchuck High School, but administrators said they were planning the new security stop in the middle of the schools long driveway long before the recent shooting spree at Virginia Tech University.
Currently visitors to the school drive to the visitor parking lot near the main entrance of the 80-acre campus during school hours and sign in at the office, or afterwards directly to other lots adjacent to the pool or many athletic fields.
Starting soon drivers will stop at a guard house in the middle of the drive where the asphalt walkways leading to the baseball diamonds are now. Visitors will be tagged with stickers and directed to the appropriate area and the office will be radioed.
The booth will be staffed only when class is in session, according to M-P assistant principal Dave Rose, adding that plans are still in flux at this time. During the early morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up sessions security personnel will be at their usual stations directing cars away from the bus assembly and loading areas. Rose said the new set-up will help keep kids safe and allow staff to keep tabs on who is coming to and from campus. It will also help during lockdown drills and emergencies when the front gate is closed and staffed but not locked by school leadership. Currently someone has to run or ride a bike down the driveway and stationing one of the schools four security guards at the booth will save time. The high school also has a full-time sheriffs deputy on hand each day and next year could have up to 3,100 students.
A regular function of the security team is to get on a bike and chase down students trying to leave the campus without authorization, or who want to make a trip to their car parked off campus on county right-of-way on 108th Street NE. In general students are not allowed to visit their cars, even if parked on campus, and the strip of land on the north side of the street is a frequent magnet for strays. The booth will command a view of both areas.
It gives us a better opportunity to see who is on campus, Rose explained. Its basically done for the safety of the students, so we can see whos on campus in this mini-city that we have here. Thats what it really is.
According to Rose, springtime finds many students from other high schools visiting the campus without permission, for whatever reasons, and with 18 buildings and 15 portables faculty and staff have enough on their hands trying to educate kids. He never imagined he would be dealing with issues such as shootings and security when he prepared for his teaching career decades ago and Rose said the change might pique some parents when they come to pick up their children. But there is already a similar booth in the back of the school and the new booth will offer a little more position of authority, Rose said
It seems like these are stringent rules to someone not involved in modern-day education, but looking at it pragmatically thats the way the world is, he said. It make take some adjustment for staff, parents and students, he added.
We will not abuse it, Rose stressed.
The Virginia Tech University massacre was not the prompt for the change, which was discussed by school principal Tracy Suchan Toothaker and district security director Billy Roberson at the start of the fall 2006 semester. Other schools with open campuses have discussed instituting mandatory uniforms for students, partly for security reasons, but that wont be happening any time soon.
An added safety feature is that as visitors sign in at the checkpoint, security staff will radio their destination. If someone doesnt show up where they said they were going security will know who and what model car to look for, according to lead security worker Anne Carlson.