An improved, more strictly enforced closed campus policy at Sequoia High School is impacting students’ access to the outside world during school hours since the school year began. This has caused lots of discontent amongst students.

When students returned to campus after the COVID-19 quarantine, Sequoia did not strictly enforce its closed campus policy. Many students violated the policy and did not respect campus rules.

“We didn’t expect that that relaxed kind of feeling would become so relaxed that people would think they had the right to leave campus whenever they wanted,” Administrative Vice Principal Gary Gooch said.

Some of the reasons students leave are to go get food or hangout with their friends outside of school grounds.

“Food options [or] drink options, most likely. Better food, better food…Chipotle!” Campus Security Aide Mary Gil said.

Some students feel that the food provided on campus doesn’t compare to the food offered in downtown Redwood City.

“There’s more flavor. [The food] doesn’t taste like cardboard,” junior Desiree Huffer said.

Teachers quickly realized that students leaving campus is a big safety issue. Throughout the district, there’s a door to door policy. Whenever a student walks out of their house and the door closes, they are Sequoia’s responsibility. When students leave campus to go get food, this means they are out of sight from staff.

“30-acre campus, but just outside of this, there are police interacting with transients and criminals and things are happening just over at Sequoia station. In downtown Redwood City, there’s lots of bad things happening that are beyond our control,” Gooch said.

Staff members recognized that the policy was not nearly being enforced enough and that Sequoia students were in danger as a result, improvements were necessary.

“Mobilizing staff, right. So, you know, in the past few years, it’s been me and [Administrative Vice Principal Sophia] Olliver and just a few campus aids we have running around. And that’s just not going to work. So we got together and we basically mobilized some other staff members,” Gooch said.

This year it’s all hands on deck.

“We’re all working together to make sure that we get all of the gates locked and have people positioned in places where someone could possibly sneak out,” Gil said.

This new and stricter policy has created mixed opinions amongst students, however it has really helped keep students on campus and out of danger. Students prefer to stay on campus rather than face the consequences of leaving.

“Because I don’t want to do detention,” Huffer said when asked why she no longer leaves campus. 

Not only has this resolved most closed campus infractions, others feel that there has been an improvement in energy and community here at Sequoia.

“I just spoke with some students in ASB and they came up to me and said, ‘It’s such a better vibe here,’” Gooch said.