At 2,100 students, our school has the population of a small city packed into a single building for five days out of every week.

The security guards that we see patrolling the hallways act as peacekeepers among this mass of teenagers, and their purpose is in question among some students.

“I’m not sure when it all began, but I do recall when I taught here in 1985, we had a security officer,” Phil Clark, principal, said.

Even before the days of electronic cigarettes and the Columbine shooting, the Olathe School District found a need for security guards in schools.

“There are really two primary concerns. One, additional visibility both inside and outside.”

“Their primary charge is to address anybody before they get into the building,” Clark said.

This added sense of safety that these professional guards bring is the number one reason for their presence in our schools, and in light of recent deadly events, this is hard to argue with.

“The other thing is that there’s a lot of personal property in the parking lots, so part of their charge is to keep a watchful eye on that throughout the day,” Clark said.

Personally, having that sense of security over personal belongings and the safety of my peers and me is priceless.

Some students may ask, “What’s the point of having an SRO as well as security guards? Isn’t that a bit much?”

The truth is that these jobs are quite different.

“I’m more of that information person for them–kind of like a liaison when they need information on what might be a criminal offense or what they should do about it,” Damon Bell, SRO, said.

Essentially, the SRO, (Officer Bell) is important because he provides the security guards with additional experience and enforcement of the school policies.

Often, students can underestimate the magnitude of responsibility that the adults in the school have to protect us and make sure we are educated in the best way possible.

Security guards make this job easier for the administration and the educators; they can direct their focus on the quality of their work.

“We’ve picked up an additional 85,000 square feet, and since ‘85 we have about 800 more students, so it just makes sense,” Clark said.

Security guards would not exist if there was not a need for them, and since there clearly is this need, resenting their presence is foolish and immature.

Embracing the security guards as individuals who have a job to do is the best way we can coexist with them.

As students, we need to learn to better respect the security guards at our school for doing their part in creating a safe environment that is hospitable to learning.

By doing this, coexisting with our security guards would become easier, even if we don’t agree with a lot of what their job entails.

Respecting them for what they need to do will make them more likely to respect us.