Parents concerned about glass school
Mar 19, 2018, 12:45 PM | Updated: Mar 20, 2018, 12:12 am
MADISON, Wis. — Parents in one Wisconsin school district are demanding that the design for a new high school be changed. They argue the floor-t0-ceiling glass design is unsafe, especially in the wake of recent school shootings across the country.
“My son’s safety is number one,” said Erin Quin.
At first Quinn was in support of a new Verona High School, voting yes on an April 2017 ballot greenlighting a $181 million building.
“With it being one of the most expensive school referendums in Wisconsin state history, I would expect that safety would be one of the first concerns,” said Quinn.
But Quinn said seeing the 3-D renderings of it proved her wrong, “I was pretty astonished how much glass interior and exterior.”
Finding it so unsafe, she doesn’t want her son now 9-years-old to go there in the future.
Quinn said, “If the high school is created as it currently is, there’s no way I feel safe with my son going to that school.”
The school board doesn’t want anything like that to happen. They held a community meeting last Thursday, touching on their 50-point security plan and say following the Parkland shooting they contacted their architect to make sure safety improvements were addressed.
They’ve also asked the architect to include some bulletproof glass.
School Board President Noah Roberts said, “We directed our architects to review the amount of glass, the location, the type, particularly in the interior, and tasked him with coming up with some creative alternatives.”
Roberts also said safety is the importance of a good mood and productivity.
“The goal for us is to balance safety and those design principles, which include a lot of daylight, which study after study shows that that’s great for learning,” said Roberts.
Roberts said there likely won’t be any significant changes to the design, but Quinn is holding out hope.
“There is a chance now they could build one of the safest schools in the country and be a blueprint for other schools to come,” said Quinn.
Construction of the new school is expected to start in a few weeks.
Officials hope the school will be open for classes by 2020.
