Security plays a big role here at CK, because the administration wants to make sure students feel they are in a safe and caring environment. There are two security guards here, “Mr. Rick” and “Mrs. Sarah.”

What’s a typical day look like for security? “Every day is a different day; you never know what is going to happen,” said security officer Sarah Malone. “The best part of this job is talking and catching up with students, and the worst is dealing with all of the students’ drama and rumors,” she added. If there is anything that Malone would change about her job it would be having to direct buses and traffic.

The training that security received was peer mediation which is both a program and a process where students of the same age-group facilitate resolving disputes between two people or small groups. This process has proven effective in schools around the United States and changed the way students understand and resolve conflict in their lives. They also had gang training and drug and alcohol training.

“The best way to make high school more secure is if students would be more responsible and mature for their actions and mistakes,” said Malone.

Klahowya Secondary School also has two security guards, like CK, but security at Olympic High School is much different. Olympic security is provided by a Kitsap County Sheriff’s officer, better known as a School Resource Officer. In the next few years, other schools around the district will also be a part of this system. The only reason why Olympic has a sheriff as security is because they had no volunteers when the security guards quit last year.

The School Resource Officer does not serve just one school, though. If CK or another school in the district were to have a problem of some sort, they could contact the sheriff and he would come to the school.

Having a sheriff can have both a positive and negative impact on a school, explained Malone, “because some people don’t like the fact there is a sheriff as their security guard, and it could be good, because the security would be more strict and the school would be protected more.”