Opinion: Don’t Fence Our Safety

The great divide between students and the Tyrone Hospital.

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Morgan Bridges

Ahead, students can be seen walking alongside the fence as a line of traffic shares the same road.

In the interest of “community safety,” the Tyrone Hospital has erected a 6 foot fence, effectively cutting off the high school and middle school students from our only means of escape in an emergency situation.

If a fire breaks out in the middle school and the students need to be evacuated to a safe distance away from the building, using side fire exits, they won’t be able to get far enough away due to the new hospital fence. They will need to move forward and not to the side.

The fence does not keep the students attending Tyrone Area School District safe. In actuality, it is a danger to the students, potentially entrapping students if there is an emergency at the school.

Especially with the recent bomb threat that occurred on November 19th, the first priority of the hospital as well as the school should be the safety of the children attending the Tyrone Middle and High School.

If an armed gunman comes into the front door of the school, and our only means of escape is the side of the middle school, again, our escape route will be blocked by a 6 foot high fence, effectively cutting off our only chances to escape safely. We will still be in a shooter’s range at the fence and unable to get away.

This is all in the name of insurance liability, not student safety. Some insurance agent determined that if a student was hit by a car on Hospital Drive, then the hospital would be liable.

What that reasoning doesn’t take into account is that the students now walk further and longer on Hospital Drive. Before, they merely crossed it. Now we are forced to walk along it with no sidewalks as cars speed past us. Others choose a more dangerous route and jump over it. Others are walking a path through the woods. That adds an additional level of danger.

The fence increases students’ chances of getting hit by a car on the hospital road and we’re even more likely to get hit when walking across the school road with heavy traffic.

When will common sense prevail? There should be an open gate at the side closest to the hospital. Students could cross there safely. Add a pedestrian cross walk.

People in the community walk the same route throughout the day. This affects students and adults alike.

I know it’s not a big deal to many, but for me to have to take an alternate route to get to and from school is ridiculous, especially because I live right there.

The reaction initiated by the Tyrone Hospital because a few parents decided to disobey the parking signs is making it more dangerous for the rest of the students who walk home. Add a gate and enforce the parking ban.