On Wednesday, Sep. 6, the school safety committee held its first meeting to discuss ways in which safety on the Wilson campus can improve in all areas of campus life for the 2023-2024 academic school year.
The committee–consisting of staff, administration, parent, and student representatives–focuses on eliminating all confounding variables that may inhibit academic and leadership growth in each student as their time at Wilson prepares them for college and beyond.
Vice Principal Dr. Ho, hosted the meeting and shared how main concerns she emphasized included the upcoming evacuation and emergency practice drills, increasing accessibility to the See Something, Text Something resource, implementing oversight of students’ social media activity, parking lot congestion, campus police and security, and more.
In the case of increasing access to Wilson’s 24/7 emergency reporting platform, See Something, Text Something, the QR code and phone number were pinned to Wilson’s Instagram main profile and bio the very next day. As for issues like violent threats made on social media, more discussion awaits the development of a solution.
Louie Carlos, safety committee parent representative, explained how the meeting formed a unified purpose to improve campus life as much as possible.
“For Dr. Ho, student safety is a big priority at Wilson, she took notes and valued what the parents said regarding making the school a safe place,” Carlos said. “Dr. Ho mentioned a lot about last year’s lockdown, but I congratulated her and the administration on keeping parents so updated throughout the day,” Carlos shared.
Sharing similar concerns he has noted throughout his past few years as a Wildcat, Pedro Rueda (12), joined the conversation for the first time as a student representative on the committee.
“Dr. Ho talked to me about it and I thought it was a good idea to have input from everyone, including students,” Rueda shared. “I’ve seen some safety concerns that can have a solution, so my motivation [to be a part of the committee] was because I want to keep the school safe.”
Chiming in on matters other than physical school safety, Rueda assembled a team with students, teachers, and administration toward the end of the 2022-2023 school year to pitch a renovation plan for the media center to Wilson Principal, Dr. Kenfield, and the district board officials.
“A concern I would want the administration to understand is that some things in this school have been here for years, and I believe that they should be in check and renewed every once in a while” Rueda added.
With much left to discuss in the three following meetings throughout the remainder of the school year, the administration hopes to continue to bridge the gap between all people tied to Wilson to ensure as much academic, social, and leadership involvement as possible in the students who are only with the school for four fast years in their careers.
