As of Feb. 19 Robinson High School’s student parking lot entrance has become the sole point of entry for all non-bus rider students coming to school in the mornings. (Students who ride the bus enter through the gate by the cafeteria).

Up until then, students could also enter through a gate at the front of the school, a gate by the bike racks and a gate in the back of the school where buses drop off. Now everyone has to enter through one gate.

According to principal Robert Bhoolai, the gates have been closed in an effort to “concentarte supervision” of students entering the school. The student parking lot has been the only open gate for 10 school days so far. On three of these days there was not a staff member standing near the gate. Bhoolai has stated that there are cameras monitoring this entrance.

“We’ve installed several cameras in that area and so we also use those to monitor,” Bhoolai said. “We have access to those cameras not just on that TV in the main office but a lot of other places on this campus as well so it allows us to monitor you guys at a much wider pace.”

Security measures across the country shifted after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School last February. Superintendent Jeff Eakins released a statement on the district website after the shooting. “Hillsborough county Public Schools has spent the last four years securing our campuses. The safety measures on our campus includes controlled access, fencing, locked gates, security cameras and other features,” the statement said.

The new gate system has made it so many pedestrian students have to walk much farther to actually get into the school. They also have to walk through a large amount of traffic which they could avoid when the other gates were open.

“Students and cars do not mix and people don’t pay attention…it’s really dangerous,” Leila Bouabdelli (’20), a student who rides her bike to school in the mornings, said.

When construction on the school’s new building is completed, students walking into school will have access to a gate and a sidewalk which will help prevent students from walking through some of the traffic in and around the student parking lot. They will still enter the school from the student parking lot gate.

“The gate affected me in a very negative way and I’m pretty much late to school everyday now by about ten minuets and there’s an extra like 300 kids going into the same tiny choke-hole,” Michael Griesemer (’20) said.

Regardless of the reasoning for closure of the other gates, this change in security continues to impact many students’ morning routines.