In an effort to make students and faculty at school feel safer, DGS has added dark-reflective films on some of the doors and windows at the beginning of the school year in order to prevent people outside from seeing in. This window film has been added to all the major doors in order to enhance security and deter strangers from looking inside the building.

Principal Edward Schwartz shared his approval for this change since he wants DGS to feel more secure.

“[The purpose is] added security so those outside the building can’t see in. The other thing it does is it takes some pressure off kids who might be inside, and if somebody sees them from outside, asks them to open the door. If they don’t see you, they won’t ask you to open the door, and so that would always put kids in a bad spot where they want to let somebody in, so this way hopefully they don’t have to do that,” Schwartz said.

Senior Sarah Reilly has shared her praise on this change as well, as she now feels more protected.

“I think the dark-reflected film is beneficial because it prevents outsiders from looking into our students, and I feel like it provides a more safe environment where you don’t have to feel as if someone from the outside is watching in and watching your every move,” Reilly said.

Senior Lucy Dumford has seen benefits to this new dark-reflected film. But she has also detected potential flaws to this addition.

“I think it has some benefit, but if someone really wants to be able to see in through the window–if you put your face up really close to it, you can still see in it, so I don’t know; I think it’s good in theory, but actually to practice it isn’t that good,” Dumford said.

Schwartz has also admitted to some flaws, but believes that the flaw is minimal compared to the goal of the new doors.

“The flaws that I’ve seen is, certain times of night when the lighting is just right, you can still see in a little bit, but we are not here that much at night, so it is not as big of a deal, but it’s not perfect, but it does improve things,” Schwartz said.

The windows are a small part of the master facility plan for the school, where new security additions will continue to be added to maximize the safety of the people inside DGS.