I simply acted like I was supposed to be there and wondered how far would I get.
My first stop was Norwich High School. I don’t know any of the staff or students and was completely ignorant of the habits and inner workings of the school. I prepared myself to deal with the possibility of the staff being offended and angry by our test. Seeing how I was to take on the role of an individual attempting to violate school procedures either intentionally or unintentionally, I figured a hostile response would be warranted, if not deserved. I walked around to the side of the school and saw that all the doors were shut. No windows were open, either. I shook hands with four outer doors before giving up and walking to the front. I was buzzed in and directly in front of me was the main office with a woman staring at me. The person I came in with stepped up to the window and for a minute I considered my options. I decided just to simply walk down the hall. Not sneak or hurry, just walk as if I was supposed to be there. I walked maybe 20 feet and saw a student. I decided to ask where the cafeteria was, but almost as quickly as the question started to leave my mouth, a teacher who was near came over and directed me back to the office, where my absence had been noticed and seemed to irritate the office personnel. I spoke to the principal, Tom Knapp, after revealing my true intent.
“We have a system that is not fullproof, but nothing is,” said Knapp. Knapp served as a Marine for 12 years and says he understands the need for security. Norwich has two full-time hall monitors and a dean of students who are responsible for student discipline and safety. Each monitor and the Dean of Students has a walkie-talkie and can communicate directly with Knapp almost anytime, anywhere in the school. Norwich also practices regular lockdown drills and has a command center organized to help information move more smoothly, said Knapp. He was pleased with the school’s performance. He was polite and quite open -minded about the whole idea. “You only served to amplify our efforts today,” he said.
My next stop was Otselic Valley High School, and again everything about the school was completely foreign to me. I walked around to the rear doors. They where again closed and locked. I tried a side door, locked. At the main entrance I had to be buzzed in. I rang the bell four times before being let in.
The door opened to a hallway and a two young female students walked past. I waited in the hallway, just glancing up and down, expecting someone to come out for me. After exactly one minute had passed on my watch, I struck out down the hall in the opposite direction of the main office. The Otselic Valley school is old and its designers were not burdened at the time with modern safety concerns and so the main office is placed out of sight of the school’s primary entrance. The only indication was a small sign with an arrow that said “Main Office.” The sign did not direct me to go there, it simply told me where it was. A small note was posted above the buzzer reminding people to check in at the office after they were let in.
I walked down the hall and peered into a gym. I walked down around a corner and past several classrooms. A staff member passed me with a smile and I said, “Good morning.” I continued farther and found the cafeteria. I stopped in the hall outside the cafeteria doors and began reading students’ works hung up on the wall. I was halfway through reading about the origins of the Ku Klux Klan when the same woman I had said good morning to a few moments earlier came up to me again and asked if I was looking for someone. I said “no” and kept reading. She asked what I was doing. I told her “nothing, just looking around really.” She told me I should go check in at the main office and get a name tag. I said thank you and asked for directions. She pointed and spoke out some gentle commands. I began heading to the office on my own accord when another woman who had just overheard us speaking asked me more questions. She then led me to the office where I waited for the principal. Apparently the principal had been the one who let me in and noticed I had not reported to the office. My total free roaming time was about four minutes, but it took about six before I got to the office. I waited until he returned and he was obviously angry. Scott Poreda obviously resented my intrusion into his school. Frustrated, he told me, “You will not be welcome here ever again if you can not follow our rules.” I identified myself and tried to explain my intention, but was not allowed to fully finish. He said, “ I don’t care who you are or what you do.” Superintendent Larwence Thomas walked in during this disscussion, which triggered more heated debate as to the ethics of my assignment. Both Poreda and Thomas recommended notifying school officials in advance of trying to test their security, claiming that all the school superintendents could be trusted to remain objective and impartial. I explained that calling in advance was fundamentally flawed because the performance of the school directly reflects those that run it, which could motivate administrators to inform their schools directly or indirectly. So instead we proceeded blindly. Thomas said, “I should have you arrested don’t you know that this is technically tresspassing?” Eventually things calmed down to the point where I was told to leave and was escorted out by the principal.