Across the United States there have been countless examples of school safety violations in the last year. Many of these larger stories happened right here in Minnesota. Due to these unfortunate events, like school shootings and breaches of security, school safety has been a hot topic in the Minnesota government. In February of this year, 2026, Governor Tim Walz presented Bill HF3602 which is currently in committee. As new legislation like this is presented and voted on in Minnesota, this will affect students and staff at schools. Spectrum students have their own thoughts about how this bill would impact them if passed. Some students feel that this bill, while a step in the right direction, is not a final or complete solution to protecting students.
Liana Dixon, a Spectrum Junior, said, “I’ve seen some proposals for different like um classroom supports and teacher supports just for safety of students. And making sure that there’s kind of a place to nip any of that in the butt, before it becomes a huge issue. And I think that implementing that alongside it could really be something that’s beneficial,” regarding Bill HF3602.
A fellow Junior classmate, Payton Sando said, “Some of the legislation could have been adopted was having a school resource officer mandatory for every school. I feel like that would, it’s unfortunate that that didn’t work out. I see that it could be costly.”
Students, teachers, and staff members at schools have their own ideas about how to improve safety and what would allow them to feel most secure while at school. The implementation and presentation of new laws regarding school safety is important to students, however, without clear results and changes fear may still remain in students.
Dixon said, “And especially with just some increased violence in schools, specifically in Minnesota, I just think it’s so important for people to be able to grow up and have that educations, that’s so important. And not feel like, feel afraid, or threatened, or have any reason to not just be happy to have that.”
Ada Schulz, a Junior at Spectrum said, “Yeah I mean as someone with like high anxiety I feel like whenever I hear like a loud bang in the building I get like honestly scared sometimes. But like, yeah. I’ve just been on more high alert I feel like than usual because there had been a lot of stuff in the news within the last year about it.”
Fear and worry can be expected in serious situations like school safety. Students at Spectrum value school safety and feel that it is absolutely necessary to receive a proper education. Feeling safe and not having to worry about your security allows for more focused learning and emphasizes the importance of learning and being in school.
Sando said, “School safety to me is, If we don’t have it then we aren’t truly valuing what we’re learning here. And it should be the first priority when we’re all thinking about education because the education can’t happen in the first place because of threats, then we aren’t prioritizing the right things.”
Schulz said, “All of these families trust that the school is gonna protect their children and if the schools don’t like actually put in effort to like show that they’re protecting the kids I feel like, then like it’s just not worth bringing your kids there.”
Spectrum students are awaiting changes to school safety policies and expect our school’s policies to adapt to fit changing needs of students and staff. Staying alert to threats and engaged in learning is what can be expected from students at Spectrum. Bill HF3602 will continue being discussed in committee and it’s progress can be monitored by those in Minnesota. In the meantime, Spectrum will continue with it’s school safety protocols which are in place, protecting all students.