Eliza Hamburger ’10
Opinions Editor

Staples security is not a joke.

Well, at least it’s not supposed to be.

There is very little that you can get away with here, and believe me I have tried.

You can’t leave campus without a pass and not be stopped by security, and you can’t skip a class without being tracked down by your friendly grade-level assistant and a call sent home.

You can’t park your car in the wrong lot without getting a ticket and you can’t leave the library with an unchecked book without an incredibly loud alarm sounding and librarians checking your bag.

However, you could walk into school with a gun.

Now, believe me, I have never tested this theory, nor will I ever, nor do I even have the means to do so, and nor should you.

It is simply an observation: We don’t have metal detectors at our front doors and no one checks our bags.

I’m not even sure I’m suggesting that we change. After all, I like that the school trusts its student body.

We are not, on the whole, a dangerous school in a crime-ridden city where strangers try to break in, so that really isn’t valid enough to incite action.

But, Staples isn’t exactly the most low pressure environment.

And I’m sure everyone has heard of school shootings that are caused, at least in some way, by stress.

And speaking as someone who has been here for the last four years, even if you do as little work as I claim to, this is a pretty stressful place.

As a student body, we constantly put pressure on ourselves to be the best, trying so hard that some of us don’t sleep at night because we don’t have time and because we load up on advanced classes and extra-curricular activities.

The amount that some people do would build anyone up to a nervous breakdown.

So it’s really not completely out of the realm of possibility that people would be pushed to their breaking point here.

And I can’t help but notice that while accidentally taking a library book is practically a federal crime here given the consequences, I’m not even sure anyone would be able to tell if someone were to put a weapon in his or her bag and bring it to school.

I know that it’s not something that we have ever dealt with before, and I really sincerely hope we never do. Based on the long history of Staples, it is most likely the case that it will never happen.

But I still can’t seem to ignore the fact that pressure is building and nothing is being done to prevent it or deal with it, in the forms of security or anything else, for that matter.