Smile for the camera

A student walks outside of the 500 hallway on her way to class Friday afternoon in front of a
security camera. Students will be on camera all day, each day as a new security
measure.

Hailey Ortega

A student walks outside of the 500 hallway on her way to class Friday afternoon in front of a security camera. Students will be on camera all day, each day as a new security measure.

Hailey Ortega, Staff Writer

This year Greeley West has made security a top priority and made many improvements to keep the school safe. 80 new cameras have been installed along with a new visitor ID system to keep the school a safer place and to help keep people who shouldn’t be at school out.

Campus monitor Mr. Rudi Danford stated that the cameras will help them to keep track of the places inside and outside around the school that they don’t cover by foot. The cameras are recording at all times, so if anything were to happen while no one was around they could just look up the recorded footage.

Other improvements that have been made this year was all outside locks have been changed. In addition, a new security guard Mr. Julian Arias, has been hired to help cover more ground and allow monitors to set up at strategic locations, including stations in the main lobby and the hub, where they can see the school from all different directions. A campus monitor also will always be able to monitor the cameras from a laptop. This allows the other two security guards to be “roamers” who can walk around the school and be available to check out anything that is seen on the cameras or grab students from classes when the office needs them to. Also having a fourth security guard allows the availability to get in the golf cart and travel around the school and in the nearby apartment complexes.

Teachers are to keep their doors open during passing periods and then lock them right after, given so many of the classroom entrances are from outside doors. This makes attendance and tardiness a concern according to principal Mr. Jeff Cranson. Cranson explained that students who are late to classes leave teachers no option but to open doors to continuously stop their teaching.

Teachers were also provided training through the high schools on how to use a trauma kit in their classrooms, which included training on how to us a tourniquet.