By Beyza Guvenc

In early December, a mysterious new fence began shaping its way around campus. This fence, a security initiative approved by Principal Bryant, has faced a multitude of opinions from students, parents, and staff, with many misinterpreting its logistics and purpose. 

When ThePage anonymously surveyed a sample from the student body on the topic of the fence, their opinions were largely mixed. Most staff supported the fence, while students were split. 

One of the most common concerns was that the fence lessened students’s mobility to leave campus, which could be a problem in the case of danger. 

Mr. Bryant responded to this concern, stressing that the fence was made to keep strangers out—not to keep kids in. 

“All of the pedestrian gates, which are the smaller gates, they’re all going to have a panic bar [on the inside], just like the ones that leave these buildings. So all you got to do is push it open,” he remarks. “So it’s very easy to get out if there was an emergency right now.”

Another prominent concern among the students and staff was the dangers that could arise if we had a threat from the inside of the campus. 

To this, Bryant replied, “[the fence] is not hindering your ability to leave if you’re outside or to lock down in the classroom like we’re trained to do if there’s a threat on the inside.”

He also referenced the bathroom gunfight incident on our campus 1.5 years ago.

“That gun came into our building from somebody off campus who doesn’t go here, a former student who walked in and went right in that door in the end, and went upstairs and met somebody in the bathroom,” he stressed. “If a fence were there, [the student] wouldn’t be able to get in there.”

Many people may not be aware of previous instances of campus security being breached. 

“I’ve been here 11 years and… over the course of that time, we’ve had lots of people that are not students here… [make] their way onto our campus that we’ve found once they’re already in the interior. And it’s because our campus is open,” Bryant said. 

These concerns were also officially voiced at the district level.

“There was a security audit done here in 2018, I think it was, where a security team, they did audits on every campus in the district, and they said that Cary [High School] had some of the biggest needs of any school,” he explained. “One of the main things they said was that we had no ability to control the flow of traffic and people coming into our campus because it was open.”

“And so, this fence, where we added it, gives us the ability to create a perimeter that intruders can’t get in. Right. So that’s why we did it,” he added.

Staff and students may have noticed another project underway on campus—light poles.

“It’s very dark inside of our campus, so part of this [effort] is also going to be installing pole lights inside the campus so that we have greater visibility inside, which I’m really excited about because of just people falling and getting hurt in the middle, you know, when they’re here to play at night,” Bryant said.

He assured students and staff of his dedication to creating a holistically safe campus. 

“The last thing I want to do is have one of my students get injured,” he shared, “because somebody did something, you know, came into our campus and did something, and so this allowed me to try to keep those uninvited guests away and keep us safe.” 

Principal Bryant also acknowledges that the fence isn’t a perfect solution to the problem, but it is a good step in the right direction. 

“So, we’re still going to have to be vigilant with what we see and what we report. Yes. But just to remind everybody, this doesn’t stop anybody from leaving the scene if something happens,” he said. “So you know, it’s not going to necessarily stop the internal threat, but it will stop external people from coming onto our campus. So yes.”

Though campus-goers and their families may have mixed opinions about the newest installations, they are here to stay.