As you approach 80 Willoughby St., you may begin to pull out those headphones and store your iPod in your bag. You are greeted with a warm "good morning" or "buenos días niñas" from Mr. Contreras. You head straight to homeroom or might go down to the cafeteria to have some breakfast. What you don’t do is head through a metal detector.

Metal detectors are often used for security measures in an airport, governmental offices or various public schools throughout all five boroughs. According to www.nyclu. org, for about 100,000 public school students in New York City, going through a permanent metal detector is an everyday process. However, according to Catholic Education Resource Center, no Catholic schools are known to have metal detectors in the US, not even in the most dangerous of places.

According to www.nyclu.org, many New York students not only go through the metal detector, but also go through bag searches and pat downs from police officers who are not properly trained. Students and staff often complain of officers being belligerent, aggressive and disrespectful. "The metal detectors often make me late to class and the cops don’t show any mercy," says Shanice Ramsay, a Brooklyn Lab student.

An all-boys Catholic high school in Harlem, known as Rice High School, took in at-risk African- American boys and transformed them into responsible men who gave back to the community. This high school’s alternative to metal detectors was a plaque by the lobby that reads "The Street ‘ENDS’ Here!"

One reason an anonymous student believes we might need metal detectors at SJHS is because the top floors are rented to the GED program. "We don’t know who they are and they have access to our floors, and that’s dangerous," said the student.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, all schools became required to have a Crisis Management Plan, whether the crisis is a fire, intruders, natural, etc. Principal S. Joan Gallagher reminds us of the time there was a gas leak in the Willoughby Street line last year, which somehow spread into SJHS. At that moment students and faculty had no idea what was going on; all we knew was that we shouldn’t be in the building. Thanks to the Crisis Management Plan, teachers knew what to do and put this plan into action, and carried it out in a calm and orderly fashion.

S. Joan says that as long as she’s principal, metal detectors would never be installed in SJHS because those who visit our building would not feel as if they are trusted. She said a vital part of St. Joseph’s mission is to set up a welcoming atmosphere of hospitality for our guests. "A gracious welcome is one of the most disarming strategies one can engage in," says S. Joan.