Terrorism is a sporadic part of reality that has become more prevalent day by day, especially with the prominence of extremist divisions leaking into the shaded corners of American society and the rest of the world.

Violence is the shuttle upon which terrorism functions.

Superficially, violence seems to be gripping the nation at its core, and with situations such as the recent Kalamazoo, MI shootings on Feb. 20 and the Hesston, KS shootings on Feb. 25, students are evidently questioning their safety all the time.  

“I don’t necessarily feel safe at school for a few reasons,” Cathedral Catholic High School Pauline Sahagun ’16 said. “I always question my safety wherever I am, and I think it’s imperative to do this judging by the world we live in today. As for whether or not I feel safe on campus, I’d like to mention the rollerskating incident from last year.

“If a person can roller-skate around on campus for thirty-minutes without being caught, then I don’t personally feel like I’m being protected.”

No matter what event takes place on campus, CCHS campus security’s main priority is student safety. The rollerskating incident that happened in Sept. 2014 was handled based on procedure.

It should be noted that there was an hour-long lockdown after seventh period that ensured student safety, and the roller-skater was eventually tackled by CCHS security guard Mr. Anthony Smith.

However the rumored threat passed around on campus before spring break was something of a different nature.

“First of all, there was no threat,” CCHS Principal Mr. Kevin Calkins said. “I heard rumors being passed on campus that I felt needed to be investigated. I, along with Ms. Mauro and Ms. Bascom, started asking kids, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ Every person I talked to said they ‘heard’ something or ‘somebody else’ told them something.

“Then, I was finally able to get a few kids to say they heard direct comments that were made, but some of these were heard just two weeks ago, some a month ago, and some even over the course of years that were feeding into an idea that wasn’t true.”  

During the most recent incident, posts were made on social media regarding a potential threat to CCHS.  Whether these posts were serious or not, they were significant enough to prompt someone to contact the San Diego Police Department.

“We didn’t call the San Diego Police Department,” Mr. Calkins said. “Somebody else outside the school community did. And so the police showed up, and I knew why they were here because of all the concern and rumors, and right away I knew. I said ‘somebody called them.’ “

Four police cars pulled onto campus under the impression there might have been an immediate threat to the school. There was no threat to school safety and after speaking with Mr. Calkins and other school officials for about 10 minutes.

Eventually, Safety Officer Robert Briggs decided it was better to remove the police cars from  the situation in order to avoid concern.

The rumors that were spread around campus were found nonsensical, but they eventually lead to the incorrect assumption that there was a threat on campus, and students became concerned.

“I don’t have a Twitter, but when my friends first told me about the rumors, I was scared because everyone was talking about it and I didn’t really know what was going on,” Kimmy Kelly ’17 said. “My friends showed me screenshots of the Twitter post, and I thought to myself ‘okay this is a little weird, but let’s just see what happens tomorrow.’ “

There was nothing to worry about during the most recent incident, and the cancellation of the lockdown drill happened in order to cease rumors of there being a real lockdown, Mr. Calkins said.

Despite these situations, students seem to generally think safety is not a pressing issue due to the protection provided by the security guards.

“I don’t feel nervous being at school,” Aileen Gonzales ’19 said. “I believe CCHS is safe and well guarded by the security guards.”

CCHS already has started to invest in new means of protection.

Before spring break, a new lock was placed on the entrance to the Kolbe Center.

“The front entrance to the Kolbe Center is now locked 24/7,” Mrs. Althea Ajlouny said. “We have these new little boxes on our desks that are connected to a camera at the front entrance so we can see who’s trying to walk in. The person trying to enter has to ring a doorbell, and I can talk to them and allow them to walk in or not.

“There will be a new lock installed in the attendance office in the future.”

Some students brought up the argument of having bag checks at the front gates, but this may seem somewhat tedious and unorthodox considering the student body is composed of almost 2,000 people.

“I do and I don’t believe there should be baggage checks,” CCHS student Karyn Carreon ’17 said. “I think having baggage checks would help keep CCHS secure, but I also think it’s somewhat an invasion of our privacy.”

Enforcing bag checks detracts from the daily tasks of the security guards, and the security staff seems to think there is no need to worry about safety on campus.

“I think we’ve been doing a great job already,” security guard Mr. Jason Giglaoliotti said. “I don’t think there should be bag checks because if we see anything suspicious to begin with, we handle it right away. If it’s a suspicious person, we usually tell them to leave.

“All of the CCHS access points are covered by our security guards, and I believe students should have confidence that no one will come onto campus as a threat.”

The events that took place before spring break serve an important lesson of what to do when there are rumors of potential threats being spread around campus.

“I would appreciate it if the school community would practice the same approach we do which is don’t judge any comments, just report them,” Mr. Calkins said. “We have a security staff here 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year, and of course the safety and well-being of the students here is a top priority.

“We would never, ever jeopardize anybody’s safety for any reason.”