BFHS a 'closed campus' due to threats
March 7, 2013
When students get to school on Monday, March 11, they're going to find things a bit different. If students want to eat, they'll eat what's served in the lunchroom or bring their own.

From the beginning of the school day until it's time to go home, students will no longer be allowed off-campus ... no jaunts to Safeway, Mario's or the Badger Den for lunch. No wandering out for a breath of the approaching spring air between classes.

In a terse letter telling students of the change this afternoon before sending notes home to parents or informing local media, superintendent Dick Conley imposed sanctions on every BFHS student as a Draconian measure not familiar to many who have matriculated in Boundary County.

"I didn't want angry parents texting or calling students on cell phones before I had the opportunity to tell the students myself," Conley said. "These threats to our schools and our students have to end, and this is one of the few allowable tools left at our disposal."

The stern measure may not directly bother the few students responsible. In fact, it likely won't bother them much at all. But the measure will certainly affect the trust of the estimated 99-percent of good students being denied their freedom through the loss of trust wrought by the few.

"This has to end," Mr. Conley said. "These threats are hurting the students who are working hard to gain an education, they're costing our community considerably, and drastic measures are obviously necessary to get the point across."

Students who have never experienced a closed campus are likely to be shocked. Parents may be even moreso.

Basically, it means locked doors. As in jail.

If students arrive before the gates are opened, they have to wait. I they arrive late, they have to beg admittance, and their absence is already noted.

And once in, the doors out don't open until the final bell rings without a warden holding the key.

Closed high school campuses have been around forever; typically in the boroughs of high crime cities or in places where going outside might be a danger to the students the school is sworn to teach and protect.

Never before in Bonners Ferry. Until now.