LOCKED GATES: SAFETY PROCEDURE OR SAFETY HAZARD?

from THE EAGLE EYE SEPTEMBER ISSUE 2022

THE MONTH OFSeptember! CHILL ON THE HILLS

run, hide, and defend. However, with the new gated campus, the option to ‘run’ is severely hindered.

school hours. Though this rule was put in place to protect students from potential dangers entering campus, many students fear that it’s doing the opposite. In Parkland Florida, on February 14th, 2018 a student of Stoneman Douglas High School opened fire on his peers from the entrance of campus. Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people that day, including 14 students and 3 staff members. With school shootings on the rise, safety drills regarding these events have been implemented and typically feature three protocols:

Although the harm that the locked gates may cause in the event of an emergency is but a hypothetical situation -- what isn’t hypothetical is the danger and troubles that these gates have caused students currently. Many students in Leadership -- a class which takes place in Q2 (a classroom beyond the gates) -- have complained of being consistently locked out of their classes. One anonymous student claims that in their attempt to re-enter campus during Lunch, a staff member refused to open the gates for them and other students and told them to ‘just walk around.’ For a policy meant to keep students safe, it is incredibly hypocritical that Oak Grove expects their students to make their way outside of campus, out to open and busy roads in order to simply join their peers inside the school.

Additionally, the new policy has also made it difficult for students and staff alike to get to and from classrooms in a timely manner. Even though many

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Our hope is t t e c t g work to create a balance that truly works in favor of the student body.

Written By Emma Anderson

Have you ever needed water at school? When you went to get it were you repelled by the chlorinated taste?

I reached out to four school and district officials with questions about the water quality at our school. Two of them responded with some information and seemed interested in resolving the issue, those two being Mr. McCoy, the vice principal, and Mr. Sidlauskas, director of facilities, maintenance, and operations. I also did my own research. This was written with that information. There are several different models of water fountains at Oak Grove High School, some of them may be filtered, some may be unfiltered; I was unable to get a definitive answer. Unfiltered water in San José can include chemicals such as chloramine (a mix of chlorine and ammonia) to keep the water clean, and fluoride, added to water to improve dental health. It does not appear that the water is filtered. The water tastes and smells of chlorine, and I and others have noticed small bits floating in it. I have to wash my water bottle each day to get rid of the stench. I personally used a water testing kit (https://watertestingkits.com/) and found that the water has a hardness of 200 ppm (parts per million), the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) recommends that the max hardness for drinking water be under 50 ppm. The EPA also recommends that the copper be less than 1.3 ppm, the water sample I tested had 1.3 ppm. In addition to the water itself, the fountains aren’t always kept clean or functioning. I and Mr. Mccoy went around and found that 6 out of the 16 fountains weren’t working properly; some of the 16 fountains were very dirty.

The recommended amount of water to be consumed each day is at least 64 ounces, or 8 eight-ounce glasses a day. To be at school from 8:30am to 3:30pm, even longer for students that are in clubs or sports teams, without access to palatable drinking water is absurd.

The water provider for our school is Great Oaks Water Company. In their most recent annual report they state: "Your water is safe, clean and great tasting... As your water provider, Great Oaks is uniquely positioned to be an advocate on your behalf for positive change on the water issues that affect your lives." Yet, the water doesn’t seem clean or great tasting. I don’t even know if it truly is safe.