The Southsider Voice
Visit us at these places!
  • Home
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • Sports
    • Car Nutz
    • Stilley Goes Trackside
    • Southside Deaths
    • Personal Recollections
    • Reminiscing
  • About the Voice
  • Advertising
  • Contact
  • Newspaper Archive
  • Classifieds

BGHS student seeks funds to enhance school safety

4/25/2018

0 Comments

 
PictureSOUTHSIDER VOICE PHOTO BY AL STILLEY Alyssa Hockett seeks matching funds to supplement student safety measures at all Beech Grove schools.
By Al Stilley
Senior staff writer

Beech Grove sophomore Alyssa Hockett is on a mission.

She wants to make all Beech Grove schools safe, and she seeks the help of the community through a student-driven fundraising drive that would supplement the district’s security.

Hockett wants to make a special device available for each classroom door to further enhance security in the classroom.

“This is all about a way that adds to the safety of students,” Hockett explained. “No student should be scared or nervous in class anywhere, trying get an education. This is a way for students to feel more secure.”

She estimates that the cost of an easily placed mechanical device for each classroom in the district at $31,500. Students would raise $16,000 from businesses, alumni, civic groups, students, residents and school events with an agreement that the school board would approve matching funds. She plans to appear in front of the board May 8 and has met with administrators.

“This is about security in the schools, regardless of how anyone feels about any political subject,” Hockett said.

Principal Elizabeth Walters is supportive because a student is opening a conversation with the community about school security.

“We benefit as a school. She is going to benefit through the process, but her true goal is to make sure the community has a conversation about school safety because we all have to be part of that conversation,” Walters said in an interview with Fox 59.

Hockett wants a unique bar (Barracuda BS-1) in all classrooms that allows a door to be barricaded from the inside for additional protection from an intruder.

She has helped in forming a high school group, STORM (Special Team of Role Models), to reach out to students throughout the district. She wants to speak out against bullying, especially with middle school students.

She envisions a STORM team that would inform high schoolers about school safety and all students about how proactive safety.

Her drive for additional school security is an outgrowth of her activities. She holds a first degree black belt, has taken part in active shooter seminars and assisted in a preventative child-abduction seminar.

Hockett is training to become Community Emergency Reaction Team-certified through Homeland Security at the East District of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

She has three sisters and is the daughter of Crissy Grider, a Beech Grove alumna and former secretary of the high school’s Alumni Association, and Michael Hockett.

Hockett was spurred by the tragic shooting that killed 17 students at Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla., and an earlier shooting that killed two students in December at Aztec (N.M.) High. Her awareness was raised by recent threats at two high schools in central Indiana.
​
Donations can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/safety-is-priceless. Checks, with a notation: Safety is Priceless, can be mailed to the Beech Grove Education Foundation, 53345 Hornet Ave., Beech Grove, IN 46107.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    Arts & Entertainment
    Lead Story
    Sports: 500
    Sports: Basketball
    Sports: Track

    RSS Feed

 DROP OFF: The Toy Drop 6025 Madison Ave., Suite D
Indianapolis, IN  46227  |  317-781-0023
MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 17187, Indianapolis, IN 46217

[email protected] | [email protected]
Website by IndyTeleData, Inc.