As high school students in America, none of us are unfamiliar with the ominous feeling the school space can bring. On Jan. 18, various physical incidents took place at Park between students and adults (not SLP employees). This caused Park classes and all on-campus activities to be called canceled on Jan. 19. The incident enhanced news coverage and forced Park to implement safety policies for the following week.

The safety incident itself gained a lot of attention from social media. News outlets such as Kare11, MPRnews, StarTribune and the New York Post all brought attention to the issue. The media coverage increased tensions and explored the incident in ways that impacted the educational experience of Park students. The severity of the incident was unclear to me until I had received calls from worried family members and texts from curious friends. In school, it is common to hear about the harsh realities of what it is like to be a student in America — being the school that is covered by national news outlets was a new experience and put school safety into perspective. 

This week, Park has begun to implement new safety measures in an attempt to increase school peace and stop events like these from happening in the future. These precautions include increased police and administration presence, finals block schedule, closed campus lunch and more. While these changes may sound unpleasant to the student body, the intention behind them is what matters. 

I am seeing an increase in understanding on behalf of my peers. Keeping a positive outlook on Park’s potential and following rules is the key to holding each other up and being more united as a school community. Oftentimes at Park, changes made on behalf of the administration are frowned upon by students. In my experience, this is because harsh and sudden changes have a tremendous impact on the school environment and on students who have not contributed to the issues that led to a change in policy.

The immediate aftermath of incidents like these and the hard decisions made in an attempt to keep people safe should not be overlooked. Moving forward, I hope that the Park community can maintain Park Pride and lean on each other in times like these. As for my peers, I hope that we can work together to exhibit the wonderful values that we typically hold rather than treat each other poorly in times of disagreement. It is frustrating to see human equals treat each other so poorly. Working to be a more unified community will not be successful overnight — it takes a village and the steps the administration has taken already are having a positive impact. Park has the potential to be great, and we must rely on and trust each other to contribute to a healthy learning environment.