As someone walks down the hallways in the school right now they will see a small area on each hallway that is painted a different color. This is a new security measure to help when law enforcement has to be called to the school.

  An example that resource officer David Fajen gave is that if an emergency happens in the freshman hallway and law enforcement has to be called, only people inside the school will know where that is, the law enforcement won’t.

  The colors are painted in a small area in each hallway of every school in the district. In the high school, the color of each hallway is based on each grade’s assigned color.

 “It was easier to paint a small box instead of the entire hallway and cheaper for the district, ” Fajen said

  The idea came after an active shooter tabletop exercise that took place last fall.

  “There was an active shooter tabletop exercise with school district, local law enforcement and the emergency operations management for Benton County and they came up with it and decided that it was needed,” Fajen said.

  Right before Christmas break, there was a color written at the end of each hallway and many students had no clue what they were going to do.

  “I just thought they were going to paint all the hallways different colors, I had no clue it was for security reasons,” sophomore Maddy Schockmann said.

  When students returned from Christmas break, they saw the area that had a color written was now painted and then they found out why.

  “I found out why they painted a small area on each wall when another student in one of my classes asked the teacher,” sophomore Jessica Dwyer said.

  Many teachers believe it is a good idea for the same reason that it happened.

  “It will make the transition seamless when someone has to come in and exactly pinpoint where a shooter is, when they are not familiar with the school,” math teacher Jowell Roellig said. “It will cut down time and time is of the essence in an emergency situation.”

  Besides many teachers, administration believes it’s a good idea.

  “I believe that it’s a great idea,” principal Randy Luebbert said.

  In the past several years, the school has added things to help with security. Some of those things include the double door entrance that was added in 2015, the cameras that are in the hallways and the training the faculty has. All of those things have been done to increase security in the school and to be better prepared in a emergency situation. The color coding of the hallway is one of the things this year the school has done to increase security and there are more things coming.

  “We are working on them right now and there are a few other things that are coming,” Fajen said.