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Robinson High School 6311 S. Lois Ave., Tampa, FL 33616
Volume 60, Issue 2 |December, 2019
caught between a rock and a hard corner
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THE BEST THINGS TO DO OVER WINTER BREAK
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Robinson adjusts school security to fit with new Florida laws
Find out how guidance helps students through uknighted tree
By: Ameilia Foster A&E and Multimedia Editor
In this photo illustration, editor Anna Woodward poses for a photo taken in between the cracks of a closed blind inside a classroom of the new foreign language building. Photo by Morgan Brazier
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O CHEER PREPARES FOR COMP SEASON
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SAVE THE DATE Dec 16
Exam week begins
Dec 20
Last day of first semester
Dec 25
Christmas
Jan 1
New Years day
Jan 7
Students return to school
n Jan 19, 2018, Robinson was issued the construction permit for the new foreign language building; 26 days later, 17 people died at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during a school shooting. Now, nearly two years later, Florida Governor DeSantis has signed into effect laws concerning school safety requirements, including building design, too late for Robinson to change its newest building. The new laws, known as Senate Bill 7030, are a set of recommendations from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, which was formed to analyze what went wrong during the MSD shooting and to make state-wide recommendations to prevent a similar situation. The Commission submitted their report to the Florida Legislature on Jan 2, 2019 and it became effective on May 8, 2019. Glass is a common motif in the new foreign language building, and although many of the windows can be covered by blinds, it eliminates the possibility of permanent hard corners, which is an area in the room that can not be seen from any windows and is meant to keep students safe during active shooter threats. The building did pass the final inspection on April 12, 2019, but Senate Bill 7030 didn’t go into effect until a month later. “I actually had one of the officers come out and work our site... to take some recommendations and requests back to them [the school security office] to make our school more ‘hard’ so to speak,” Principal Robert Bhoolai said. “Even those classrooms with the windows in the hallway, they do have a way to block those windows in a matter of seconds [in reference to the blinds]. You can create a hard corner but you have to make sure those windows are covered because obviously its part of the wall.” Outside of the structure of the hard corner, the senate bill recommends that hard corners are marked in some way to indicate where
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students should go in case of an active shooter. Robinson administration met with faculty to instruct them to mark their classroom’s hard corner, yet many classrooms go without a clearly marked area. Robinson had school security plans before the MSD shooting, and they evolve constantly to cover any threats as they come up. Each individual classroom has a standard plan according to location, amount of windows, size, etc. Robinson worked with the school district to create security measures for each building that complied with the new senate bill, including the hard corner. “There were some changes [to the school safety plan] based on that bill but we worked through those changes with our You can create a hard corner but you have school security office,” to make sure those windows are covered Bhoolai said. “I don’t because obviously its part of the wall. want to say it wasn’t - Principal Robert Bhoolai hard, but the process was as smooth as it could have been.” Out of the 12 classrooms in the building, two of which are computer rooms, 10 have a large window facing the outside, four have floor-toceiling windows facing the hallway and eight have non-transparent glass through which you can see outlines and shadows. Each large window can be covered by twist-blinds or pull-down shutters, and the blinds on the windows that face the outside aren’t pressed against the glass, resulting in cracks when the blinds are fully closed that reveal corners in the room. None of the glass is bulletproof. “In the classrooms that I’ve been in in the new building, no, there is Continued on page two...
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