Students are starting to notice classroom searches being a recurring occurrence. These searches happen during student’s class time. The people in charge of these searches are Brian Kratlian, 10th grade AP teacher, and the school’s principal Kirstin Coronado. These classroom searches are put in place to keep Sanger High School a safe environment.
“The main purpose of the searches is to ensure the safety of both students and staff on campus. The use of the dogs has been effective, we have been able to find items that should not be on campus.” says Brian Kratlian. The searches have always been a safety procedure at Sanger high, but Kratlian adds that, “during the pandemic their use was not essential at the time. Once we were back to full session in person classes we brought the dogs back on a regular basis.”
Not only does it only occur during class time, but Kratlian states, “There are no specific time or days, the schedule is completely random. The classrooms that are chosen are also random.” With this type of schedule, it is more secure for the students and staff’s safety than for the classroom searches to have a specific time.
Although the classroom searches help to create a sense of security, they also require the students in addition to the staff to play a role.
“Around 3 – 5 security officers, they request the students to leave their belongings inside the classroom and head outside to be searched. Once everyone is cleared, they ask the students to return to their classroom afterwards.” says 11th grader Eduardo Rodriguez. Eduardo is a student at Sanger High and has experienced these classroom searches, much like many of the students at the school. Eduardo also adds, “We go outside and line up, police officers ask students to remove any items that they have with them, and place them into a bin they provide, then have us stand so they can search students with a metal detector.” This is the procedure students go through while the class searches are put in place. The student’s cooperation is also part of the safety procedure. Both security and students do their part to keep their school safe. These searches also involve the usage of trained dogs the school security uses. The dogs also play a big role in keeping the school safe.
“The use of the dogs has always been a part of our safety routine here at SHS.” explains Kratlian. He also adds, “We are given notice from the district before the dogs arrive on campus. Once the dogs are here we go to the classroom, remove everyone from the classroom, students are wanded, and the dog searches the room.” With all of these procedures in place, it is clear that the main goal for this procedure is to keep the students at Sanger High School safe.
The searches, according to Kratlian, have “been able to find items that should not be on campus.” Because of this, the random searches will continue to create a more secure campus for its students.
