The recent closing of the gym entrance might feel like an inconvenience, but it should be praised rather than criticized. The safety officers at our school deserve a thank you for protecting us.

With 175 school shootings in the United States since 2013, it is a miracle that in a town like Evanston, riddled with gun violence, we haven’t had a Code Red for a problem of this magnitude. This is thanks to the recent tightenings of security in our school, regarding the entrances and exits.

There is a lot that goes on in our school that we don’t know about. Many of you wouldn’t have heard about the arrest of three Wildkits earlier this month or the bomb threat if it weren’t for the article being shared on Facebook, or your friends talking about it, but these types of events are not uncommon.

With crimes like these occurring within the ETHS halls, imagine what is going on just blocks away. Closing down the gym entrance and checking IDs at re-arrival after lunch are some of the ways our safety has protected us from outside forces.

Even with our 60 safety officers, there still aren’t enough people to man each door in our school. Extreme measures have been taken towards protecting our entrances and exits. Earlier this year, the Bacon exit was restructured for the purpose of keeping out anyone who might try to enter our halls unidentified, ultimately protecting us.

Although these measures are great, it is undoubtedly frustrating that the senior lot is so far away from an entrance, when the purpose of having a senior lot is to have a lot closest to an entrance.

The best way to solve this problem would be to station safety officers at the gym entrance during the mornings and lunch.