As concerns over school safety increase, more doors will be locked and monitored.

While many understand the reasons, some students and teachers may have to adjust in order to get around the school in a timely manner.

“We just have to be a little bit more careful and monitor those doors,” Security Specialist and football coach Timothy Wright said.

“I can see how it could be a security issue, I just don’t think it is one,” sophomore Joey Link said, “with the amount of security, plus teachers and the response times that we have,” Link said.

In the midst of these safety precautions, the hallways and paths have been getting more crowded and more difficult to traverse.

“They are usually pretty crowded and you run into people in corners a lot,” sophomore Clarrisse Bosman said.

When doors are locked, it can be challenging for students to get into the buildings, especially those with special needs.

“Being in a wheelchair, after parking my car in the snow, I’m not about to walk all the way around the block,” senior Paul Stoiber said.

Others, like freshman Dylan Michaelson, don’t seem to mind.

“I haven’t encountered that problem a lot. I can see why they would lock doors in the morning,” he said.

The decisions are based on safety concerns regarding school shootings.

“It is difficult to get kids to cooperate and understand that we are there so they can go about their day and feel safe,” Wright said.

Some people have tried to get around it by propping the door open.

“Of course I have [seen doors propped open]. I’ve propped open the door myself,” Link said.

Others find that the new locked doors are a necessary reaction to recent events.

“A couple of years ago it probably would have been a different answer,” school psychologist Lisa Geissler said. “But unfortunately I think we have to look more and more at making it hard to just walk into the school. It’s just kind of our reality now. I think we have to just keep moving forward with measures like that.”

Security staff is currently working to keep the doors from being left open.

“We monitor that – that has become one of our priorities,” Wright said. “We are checking who is doing that and bringing them in and letting them know that they shouldn’t do that.”