Security highlights Greenbush school site changes

Anyone who tries to get through the back door by the wrestling room, the elementary wing door, or several other doors at the Greenbush-Middle River (Greenbush site) building, they may notice that they are all locked. This isn’t to keep the students in, but to control traffic coming in from the outside. 

New Greenbush-Middle River High School Principal and Greenbush Elementary site Principal Michael Underwood has enacted a few changes, security highlighting those changes, all in an effort to keep students safe. Other changes he has enacted include: lunch counts and opening the gym up at lunch hour to get students out of the hallway during that time.

Back to the security, Underwood visited with numerous individuals inside and outside the building, including parents, community members, teachers and other administrators, and he discovered this:

“It was apparent pretty quick that our security probably wasn’t to a level that would be considered necessary in 2016 America,” Underwood said.

Considering the district’s financial constraints and its inability to purchase a multi-thousand dollar new security system, he asked how the district could ensure its students’ safety. He thought he could do so by locking some outside doors and funneling and better controlling the traffic through just two main doors, including the front door next to the main high school office and the back door leading to the district office. 

Over the first month of school, the district, Underwood explained, has tried to inform parents and community members of this change and the want to have traffic come through the main office. The community members and parents have expressed support so far to these changes, as well as the teachers, particularly those in the elementary wing expressing concern over not knowing, at any moment who is walking into the building. 

“It could be totally innocuous. A parent bringing a forgotten lunch or winter boots or something, but it just as easily could be somebody with bad intent,” Underwood said. 

To learn a little more about this change and other changes, read this week’s edition of The Tribune in print or online.