On March 29, a false school shooting hoax shook schools across the nation, resulting in lockdowns and an overwhelming sense of panic for students and faculty alike. I found myself trapped in a first-floor classroom of the B building, which houses classrooms with walls made of almost entirely glass, as SWAT teams entered our school to clear the area with tactical gear and guns.

As we hid behind desks to stay out of sight of the windows, armed police officers entered the building and began to sweep the school searching for a possible threat.

For more than an hour, I sat in a dimly lit room with my classmates, observing their varied responses to the situation. Some attempted to lighten the mood with forced chuckles, but their laughter rang hollow in the tense atmosphere. Others sat frozen in terror, their eyes wide as they contemplated the worst-case scenario. Still, others turned to their phones, feverishly typing out messages of love and farewell to their loved ones, their fingers shaking with uncertainty.

“I was petrified. I started texting my friends and my parents telling them what was going on, I was preparing for the worst, ” senior Angela Petrarca, who was in Jesse Frailey’s classroom at the time, said.

Other students in Frailey’s class were left with almost nowhere to hide. This classroom boasts two full glass walls, and no place in the room out of sight of the windows, leaving students and teachers feeling petrified and unprepared.

“At first I thought it was a joke, but then I saw a SWAT team. I saw officers carrying guns, and that scared me,” sophomore Nolan Brennan said.

All Frailey could do was hide his class as best as he could and hope the situation didn’t worsen.

“I brought everyone to the front of the room as far away from the windows as we could, we got everyone on the floor in the most obscured location that we could get in my classroom,” Frailey said.

This incident has exposed the glaring security flaw in the design of B building classrooms, which prioritizes aesthetics over student safety. The glass walls are intended to provide a modern, open feel, but they put students and faculty at risk during emergency situations like this false report of a school shooting.

It’s time to prioritize student safety over aesthetics and implement changes that will better protect students and teachers. We need to invest in redesigning the B building classrooms to include more solid walls and blinds on windows.

As students, we should not have to feel unsafe in our classrooms. We need to use this incident as a catalyst for change and push for solutions that will ensure the safety of our community.

While it’s fortunate the report turned out to be false, the experience was still traumatic for everyone involved. We need to take action to prevent a similar situation from happening in the future.

The glass walls of the B building classrooms are a design flaw that cannot be ignored any longer. In emergency situations like this, they put students and teachers in harm’s way. The fact that some classrooms have no place to hide during lockdowns is unacceptable and puts lives at risk.

It’s not just about redesigning the classrooms. We need to invest in more resources to prepare for these situations. School safety should be a top priority for every school district. We need to do more to ensure our schools are safe places for learning and growth. That means taking action to redesign our classrooms, investing in training for our staff and being proactive in addressing any potential threats. For example, during the lockdown, several substitute teachers were left without keys to lock their doors, leaving students sitting in classrooms with only an unlocked wooden door separating them from the outside of the room.

As students, we have the right to feel safe in our classrooms. It’s time for our school district to step up and take action to make that a reality. The safety of our community depends on it.