Possible safety measures for the VHS campus are being considered; what do students think?

The Ventura Unified School District began placing metal fences around VUSD elementary schools during the 2022 fall break. This raises the question of whether or not the same thing will happen to other schools in the district, including Ventura High School. 

Isabelle Rivera ‘22 said, “I don’t agree with having fences because this school already feels like a prison in my opinion, so I feel like even more we would be trapped.” 

Brynn Gray ‘25 said, “I mean they’d just be unlocking the fences wouldn’t they? I don’t think it would help a whole lot with intruders.”

Both Gray and Rivera said they would not feel safer if fences were installed.

Rivera said, “No, I mean it could and it couldn’t [prevent intruders from entering the VHS campus] just depends on the situation. I mean if it was like a guy like last year coming into our school, that would make me feel unsafe, but I don’t think it [fences] would necessarily fix the problem.”

According to a 2013 research report by Hanover Research, poorly chosen fencing may pose threats to students’ safety in many ways, such as, “Limiting surveillance of school grounds, attracting graffiti and other vandalism that diminishes the respect accorded to school property and restricting access so much that students must take more hazardous routes to and from school.” 

In contrast, Hanover Research also concluded that properly placed fences have safety benefits such as, “Designating the school grounds as a well‐defined, carefully maintained space that deserves respect, limiting access to areas that are not highly visible,” as well as, “Enabling surveillance by school staff and law enforcement and limiting access to areas that are not highly visible.”

According to Hanover Research, “Tall, continual fencing can block student pathways, forcing students to take a longer route where they are more exposed to traffic, crime or environmental hazards.”

According to an Oct. 18 @the.cougar.press Instagram poll of 133 VHS students, 57.9 percent of polled students think that the VHS campus does not need more safety measures while 28.6 percent think that there should be more security measures around the VHS campus. Of the remaining students, three percent voted other and 10.5 percent had no opinion regarding the topic.