Unauthorized access, knife found on campus fuel growing concern

Nicholas, speaking at last week’s School Board meeting, said the same measures should be taken at West St. John High School, adding school leaders are looking into purchasing ten metal detectors to increase security at both locations.

Tabari Simon, assistant principal at East St. John High School, said officials found a weapon on the ESJ campus, which reopened this month at its traditional Airline Highway location.

“We have actually already found one item, it was a knife on the ground that we don’t know if a student dropped or what have you,” Simon said. “A weapon on our grounds can easily be one incident too many. Looking at the safety of our students, we’re asking for (additional safety measures).”

Simon said individuals not attending the school often drive on campus, park in the back and try to walk on campus because of the easy accessibility of the “wide open” campus.

“From our viewpoint, that is something that we just can’t see happening,” Simon said.

“It also happens after school, where we’ve actually had to escort people off campus who thought they could just come on to the campus because they had been former students there. They wanted to see the new building or they wanted to go to practices to communicate with some of the children.”

According to Simon, those incidents can easily go from being harmless to spinning out of control.

All students and school personnel are required to display decals on their vehicles indicating they are allowed on the East St. John High School campus.

School Board President Keith Jones said the request for fencing and metal detectors would be taken up by the Board’s land and facilities committee.