Glenpool Public Schools is turning to students when it comes to enhancing safety throughout the district.
By law, schools are required to meet every quarter to discuss safety protocol. However, GPS is taking it up a notch, not only meeting more often, but having students lead the helm.
The students picked to lead the safe committees have shown not only good character, but a profound love for their schools. That’s why administrators are allowing these teens to use their perceptions of safety and turn them into a day-to-day routine.
Top of mind for students should be getting to class before the bell rings, but that's not always the case.
"I think every student in America kind of does have a fear after we hear the national news stories in Florida,” Taylor Ware, a senior at Glenpool High School said. “It does kind of shock you in a way."
Tragic stories of school shootings, or intruders on campus are hitting close to home for anyone who steps foot inside a school on a regular basis.
"Those stories do scare me,” Ware said.
Glenpool Public Schools is working to take that fear away, giving students peace of mind. That's why they've created safe committees where students lead the charge.
"I think I could really help encourage some of the better policies that we could see around here and make sure that we could all feel safer here at Glenpool,” Andrew Earp, a senior at Glenpool High School said.
Ware and Earp work on the committee together. They've just come up with an idea the school hopes to implement soon, a text-to-tip hotline.
“We feel like it could be a great way to keep students engaged but also make sure they feel safe,” Earp said.
Ware said if you see something, say something.
"It'll be a line, an anonymous line that we just text if we see something, like hey someone has a pocket knife, I don't think that's safe,” Ware said.
The students are also reaching out to community leaders and developing relationships with first responders.
"We want to perceive them as someone in authority of course, what they represent, but also to have those positive relationships,” Chad Coomer, Safe Schools coordinator, said.
For Glenpool Public Schools, relationships are key for a safe environment, and the students are a big part in making that happen.
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