Have you ever been late to class because of a locked gate on campus? Closed gates and fences around our school can slow students down and cause a lot of frustration when you’re rushing to English or Chemistry. Sophomore student Mell said that closed gates around campus forced him to take longer routes around campus more than twice last year.
Why are all these gates closed when open gates would make for more convenient travel?
Officer Stephen Dieu of the Chandler Police Department is Chandler High School’s School Resource Officer, meaning he works with our school administration and campus security to make these decisions. He has been a police officer for 19 years and a school policing officer for 16. Officer Dieu said that the first year he was at Chandler, all of the gates were open. This was a problem because the limited number of security guards meant that it was easy for a person to enter or exit campus from anywhere along the perimeter. That year, the school had 21 unwanted guests, and 5 of them ended up being arrested by Officer Dieu.
Officer Dieu said, “There are two principles when securing a facility: first, secure the perimeter, and second, control the flow.”
Dieu has worked very hard to balance safety and convenience, determining which gates need to be opened and which gates need to be closed. On a normal day, Chandler High School only has seven security guards who need to cover 73 acres of our school campus. Chandler High School is unique because we have historic buildings, use city property for classes, and have combined multiple buildings and campuses into our own. These factors make keeping our students and staff safe a particular challenge. “Safety and security are not convenient,” Officer Dieu reminded us.
Our school administration and district officials say that keeping our campus safe is an ongoing process. Mr. Milbrandt and district leaders toured our campus two weeks ago to survey security issues and discussed the possibility of adding more fencing and gates on the north part of campus.
Officer Dieu is open to any student’s suggestions for improving campus safety while keeping it possible to move around campus. He can be reached by email at [email protected] and by text at (480) 572-6720, and don’t be afraid to say hello when you see him on campus.
