How safe do students feel at school? That’s a question that came up again for CCHS students January 14 when the school went into a lockdown. The suspect with a weapon was apprehended in the front office, but students and staff were placed on a precautionary lockdown for more than two hours as Glendale Police cleared each room on campus.

“I wasn’t very worried about what was going on,” said freshman Christelle Jacques. “I thought it was more of a medical problem.”

But Alma Avila Rodriguez, another freshman, had other feelings.

“I was feeling scared because I had no idea what was going on and had no information on what was going on”, she said.

Avila Rodriguez did credit her teacher with helping during the situation.

“I was already calm because my teacher made us all feel safe”, she said.

Jacques agreed.

“I was calm because my teacher was very reassuring and sent us messages through teams making sure we were doing okay.” she said.

Freshman Ruby Quinones Ayabar had another way to deal with the situation.

“I kept calm by taking a small nap through the lockdown,” she said.

Students had a few suggestions for how the school should react to the lockdown to prevent another one, and most centered around students wearing their IDs. It was the lack of an ID that first drew the attention of staff to the outsider on campus January 14.

“I feel like we have some decent security but definitely know that we as a school could do better in preventing another lockdown,” said freshman Monier Alghanim. “For starters, having all teachers check for student ID is a great way to counter another lockdown.”

“I guess that could help in some way making sure that everyone has their ID on them,” said freshman Kevin Barraza. “But even if the teachers check eventually their gonna stop checking as time passes.”