by Madi Denton |

Liberty High School is one of the highest-ranking schools in Missouri. Our ACT scores rank us one of the best in the state, and that is something that brings pride to the school district. The school’s security is also very well known, having been featured on NBC Nightly News and the front cover of USA Today. But how safe is our school, and is it worth all the hype?
Among things like monitoring student behavior and investigating crimes within the building, it is the job of district security to “monitor student behavior during and between assigned class periods,” according to their job description. Liberty School district goes through many different measures in order to keep the high school safe.
“Security systems, including monitored doors with doorbells, alarms, locks, and badge entry systems have been installed to limit access to only necessary individuals. We have hired nearly 20 off-duty police officers to work part time and to serve on our security team,” Safety and Security Director Rick Fletcher said.
Police officers are not the only ones on duty during the day. The officers who sit in the parking lots during the day are off-duty State Troopers. They also take security one step further with the doors during the day.
“All exterior doors are locked at all times during the day. We have camera systems. At the high schools we have a monitor/ security person that sits at the front that monitors the people coming in and out,” Fletcher said.
Just because there are all those security obstacles set up, does not mean that skipping class, or even leaving the building is impossible.
“The majority of the time that I’m skipping, I will skip advisory and go to McDonalds and get breakfast, and I might end up missing part of my next hour also. Or Wal-Mart. If my friends and I are planning on being gone for a while then we just go to Wal-Mart,” junior Katie* said.
She is not the only one who makes it in and out of the building during the day.
“If I leave, I usually go to Taco Bell because it’s lunch period. I don’t leave often, just when I don’t have lunch money or something I’ll go out, get food, and come back,” junior Sean Moore said.
Even with all the measures the district takes to keep students inside the building and in class, there are still ways to get in and out.
“I park in the side parking lot, so I just pull a rug between the side doors so it’s kind of propped open, and when I come back, it is usually still open. If it’s not, I just time it so when I come back during passing period so there are other kids in the hallway and you just knock on the door and they’ll open it
for you,” Katie* said.
In the parking lots, there is always one assigned district security officer, as well as two other officers who patrol the whole district. They have specific protocol for seeing students in the parking lots during school hours.
“If it is during school hours, and they appear to be a student, we will stop, talk to them, and find out where they are going, if they are supposed to be in school, and then we will confirm that within the building,” Fletcher said.
This rule may not always be enforced though, according to some.
“The only thing that scares me is when I’m pulling out of the parking lot and District Security is out there. But they normally won’t stop you and if they do, you can just say you’re with A+ and they will let you go,” Katie* said.
There have also been some rumors going around about district security.
“I heard that someone saw the district security sleeping in the parking lot. That really shocked me and surprised me because our school says security is so important, but they’re sleeping on the job,” sophomore Olivia Clemens said.
The chances of this are very slim, because the officers are constantly on call and are required to be aware of their surroundings. That does not mean they don’t have some extra time though.
“They do not get an assigned break. We have somebody on duty from [early] in the morning until [late] in the evening that provides everything pretty much anytime the busses are out, picking up kids or anytime the busses are out in the afternoon if we were to have an issue on the bus, an issue with the bus, or anything like that, some body is on duty. As far as breaks, they get lunch, but it is not a scheduled lunch. If they are not busy, they drive through and try to get a sandwich, but obviously they are still subject to call,” Fletcher said.
Since there is no assigned break, the security officers must let the administrators know they are leaving, and then they can go to lunch.
Overall, there is a lot of work, thought and technology that goes into keeping LHS
security at its best. The administrators are not just concerned with ditching out on fifth hour. They also want to make every student feel safe during their time at Liberty High School.
“I encourage people that if they have issues, whether its bullying, threats, harassment, anything safety or security related to give us a call. We have the hotline here to call at 736-7331. We also have the state hotline they can call anonymously or they can text anonymously, where everything is all scrambled up so all we get back is the report, so no one’s name is ever given to us,” Fletcher said.

*Student names have been changed to protect the identity of the individuals.