Automatic gate and more security guards have stepped up school security in 2012

Megan Ardovini ‘13 | News Editor

Bishop McNamara is seeing increased attention given to the security of the school and the safety of its campus. There is a new automatic gate in the back parking lot, a greater amount of security guards on campus as compared to last year, and plans for setting up more cameras around the school.

According to Mr. Reginald Brady, the administrator who oversees school security, plans to increase our school safety have been talked about and in the works for a while. Although both the gate and increased security guards have occurred this school year, they have been considered for a while before. Recently, we have had some problems regarding car safety and thefts of personal property, primarily in the Mount Calvary and Union parking lots. Mr. Brady said this did not cause our increased security, but rather pushed us to “jump to it” faster.

“We reinforce security because it is an issue wherever you are,” Mr. Brady said. “Schools everywhere should be concerned about security.”

Each day there are two to three security guards on campus making rounds, securing the perimeters, patrolling all three parking lots, and reinforcing school polices. One of our newest security guards, Ms. Felicia Calloway, has been here since the beginning of the year. Usually Ms. Calloway works at apartment complexes, but she enjoys the change in atmosphere that McNamara gives her. She sees no real threat from the area surrounding McNamara, and does not anticipate any future incidents occurring now that greater security measures are in place.

“[Our] main concern is people who are not supposed to be here getting on campus,” said Mr. Brady. The new automatic security gate addresses this major concern because unlike the old gate, this new improvement only allows people already on the school property to get out, but not anyone from the outside get in.

For some students like Corey Snowden ’14, security never crosses their mind. Having transferred to McNamara in early November of this year from a public high school, Snowden says there are less security features here than were present around his old school, which he attributes to the fewer amount of incidents and threats our community has seen.

When asked whether he felt safe at his school, Ben Hartmann ’12 immediately said, “Of course. We are stepping up the security in the form of guards.” For Kevin McKeown ’12, security is “not a worry” mostly because of the presence of security guards on the campus as well as the new automatic gate in the rear of the school building. The automatic gate system is a good idea because “no unwanted guests can get in,” said Coye Gerald ’12. The overall consensus of students is that they do in fact feel safe here at McNamara.