Annoyed sighs laced with frustration fill the sidewalks of Martin as students scram- ble to remove their metal water bottles and paper clips. Everyone glares as beeping fills their ears. Someone forgot to take out their spiral notebook. New district and state requirements – including House Bill 3 – emphasizing student safety have been put in place due to a na- tionwide spike in violence in recent years. The measures have had an effect on these concerns within only a few weeks. “Security will continue to be a top priority,” assistant principal Gregory Cart- wright said. “There have already been fewer issues this year.” Last year, Martin imple- mented the three-door-rule, calling for students to only use the west entrance, front, and tennis court doors to enter the building. Students are still asked to go through these doors, only now they have metal detectors. “Using the metal detectors in this day and age is super important, but I think there are easier ways to do it,” se- nior Dionysus Gilbert said. After a learning curve at the beginning of the year, the process has streamlined and become part of the nor- mal day. “I think structure is always good,” Dean of Instruction Kelly McCollough said. “It’s been mostly positive and it makes staff and stu- dents feel safe.” Martin is known for its many extracurriculars. With these activities and the new safety protocols, things can get quite chaotic. “They make me put my cello on the table,” sophomore Lu- cille Quedensley said. “I have to open it up, they look inside, then I close it, get my things out of my backpack, actually go through the metal detectors, grab my things and finally hob- ble to the orchestra room.” Orchestra is not the only extracurricular affected by these changes. Many other sports report that these new measures have caused a lot of puzzling interactions. “My equipment gets touched and moved around a lot,” senior Colorguard member Cici Wilson-Jennett said. “Sometimes if they don’t know what to do with it, it just gets tossed around. It causes a lot of unnecessary confusion.” While the interactions with security vary from person to person, the offi- cers said they understand that they must work with the students in order to keep a steady flow in the mornings and at lunch. “Now everyone is in the routine and the kids and adults know what to do,” McCollough said. “It’s been overall positive once we got the system up and running.” Despite all the chaos, there is a silver lining to the frustration. “In my role I don’t work directly with students so this is really my only op- portunty to get to know them and greet them,” Mc- Collough said. “I’ve gotten to know kids I wouldn’t have gotten to know other- wise. We even have stand- ing jokes about the back- packs that always go off so we smile or laugh when it does. It gives a very light- hearted start to the day.” Students are required to take all metal objects out of their bag. “I think that the new security measures are creating more of a challenge for some people to do bad things to see if they can get away with it,” Quedensley said. “For instance, the question is no longer, ‘Can I bring this to school?’ It’s now, ‘Let’s see the chal- lenge of getting it through the metal detector.’” Rising concerns about the ability to sneak contraband through the doors leaves our staff and students searching for a better solu- tion to make this school a better place. “Metal detectors pick up things that shouldn’t even be picked up,” Wilson-Jennett said. “If they’re specifically looking for weapons or drugs, they should have a drug dog at the door to alert if it smells something.” All of these changes in an everyday environment are expected to leave unwant- ed irritation. However, most students have turned to accepting the new adjustments rather than denying them, especially with the shock on the first day. “The first two days of school were horrible,” senior Rin Doring said. “It took forever to get inside, I was outside until halfway through second period. It’s easier now that people know what’s going on.” The resilience of the staff and students during this new era has truly proven what school spirit really is. “Students are embracing what it means to be a Warrior and part of Martin,” Cartwright said.