Flickering lights, cars on the sidewalk and minimal officers plague the Grady High School campus. Grady safety concerns begin to skyrocket. On the night of the Grady Drama departments play, Thoroughly Modern Millie, two car windows were busted out. The two students returned to the dark parking lot to find their bags missing and one less mirror on their car.
Assistant Principal David Propst attempts to tackle these problems day after day. Along with Propst, Officer Antwan Denson increases the amount of security problems the school has. Steps have been taken in order to decrease the risk and increase the safety within and around the school.
Propst holds monthly security meetings that discuss the current safety concerns of the administration. Propst regularly meets with the local school council to push solutions through to make Grady the best environment possible.
Lights out
A TED analysis was commissioned by Propst in late November to identify safety violations or weak points in Grady’s courtyard. Some lights have gone out causing various dark areas across the courtyards.
“There are some lights on the building that are not necessary for the school to function and be properly lit,” Facilities Worker Richard Ernst said in a security meeting. “Some of the lighting is architectural lighting. Architects aren’t about function, they want to make it look pretty. Would it make the building look better? Yes. Would it enhance the security? No.”
All the lights however are not just to make the courtyard look prettier. The lighting in the upper courtyard has been unable to stay lit. At a Local School Council meeting, Denson mentioned that he believes it could be mice chewing through the wires.
Propst shows a sense of urgency when it comes to repairing the lights.
“We already had an incident occur where one of the parents fell down and hurt her knee,” Propst said. “We don’t want anything [else] to happen.”
Problems communicating with the APS Facilities Department made it difficult to address the lighting issues. The TED analysis from last year showed that some areas were “not safe,” meaning that the problems had to be handled fast.
APS Chief of Security Marquenta Sands said that some of the lights are out of the facilities departments’ control. Sands said in the Local School Council meeting that Georgia Power owns and regulates some of the lighting within the campus and some of these lights that are out could be a deeper electrical problem.
“There are a set of lights that belong to Georgia Power,” Sands said. “Unless we report that the Georgia Power lights don’t work, they don’t know it.”
With the new bus lane plans rewiring the two lights outside of the 8th street side of the building could cost up to three to six thousand dollars.
Ernst said that the two lights on 8th street have “never been connected to power.”
“We are about ready to connect them to power,” Ernst said. “That means we dig a hole, we trench, we pull wires, all that stuff.”
Ernst suggested to Propst in the January security meeting to wait until the bus lane is put in to rewire the lights.
Ernst also estimated that $6,000 has already been spent and the facilities department plans to spend at least another $9,000 on repairs so that police cameras can see the parking lot during the night.
Along with the lack of lights lights on 8th street, Propst and Ernst have noticed that behind the JROTC building light is at a bare minimum. The cameras cannot see this area during the night and it was discussed by Sands, Propst and Ernst said it is a huge safety issue for students.
The lighting for the stairs that connect the upper and lower courtyards was replaced multiple times before the facilities department used the correct bulbs. Ernst predicts the lighting in the upper courtyard should be completed by the end of next week.
Space isn’t infinite
As sophomores turn 16 and drive to school, the race for parking continues to grow more and more difficult. Students are parking in areas where there are not designated parking slots. Propst developed a solution to this issue.
Parking permits have already been mailed to the main office and will be distributed by the end of February.
“We want to start this year so we can ease the process into next year,” Propst said.
The parking permits will be registered to students using their license numbers, vin numbers and license plates. Students will receive a permit to stick on their car, which will allow them to park in the spots within the parking lot.
Barnes mentioned that if students park illegally in the parking lot, this system would make it easier identify them and make them park it elsewhere.
Propst, Denson and Byron Barnes predict that they will only be giving out a number of passes equal to the number of parking slots. This will protect against overflowing, however, it does not account for where the other students who drive to school will park.
Sands and Propst are beginning to take measures to increase the amount of signage in the parking lots. Propst claims that the student parking lot as well as the teacher parking lot becomes cluttered with parents, pedestrians and other visitors.
Signs will be ordered and posted to designate parking areas in order to organize both parking lots more efficiently.
Propst said discussions about paving the upper “dirty” lot have begun. Currently it has been labeled “unusable” even though students continue to park there. A stone slab will keep the area from eroding further and create more parking spaces for the growing number of student drivers.
21st Jump Street
APS supplied Grady with only one full time officer up until January. Officer Williams will now be stationed with Officer Denson. The amount of officers will continue to increase.
“We will give the school everything they need,” Sands said. “Metal detectors; we can set up multiple sites, we have to have staff of course to manage them. We have to look at where to reposition more metal detectors and how we are going to funnel students into a different area instead of expecting everyone to come into [the cafeteria].”
After last year’s gun incident with former student, Morgan Tukes, metal detector security attempted to be redesigned. There are only two entrances which lead students through metal detectors.
Social studies teacher and secretary of the Local School Council James Campbell shared his opinion about the metal detectors.
“It is impossible to go into that cafeteria and then get to those outbuilding without leaving again,” Campbell said. “So students don’t go into that building. It is really not possible for us to herd everyone into the cafeteria.”
