With more security incidents happening in the Westwood community, both amongst its student population and in the local Austin area, students and parents have voiced concern. With safety incidents ramping up in the area surrounding the school, a core change for many students includes shifting their school eating habits. On the other hand, a seemingly harmless water gun tournament for seniors has spiraled into a catalyst for unsafe encounters.

Whereas previously eating lunch off-campus was seen as a safe alternative to bringing food or eating from the cafeteria, these incidents and the resulting actions by the school’s administration have led some students to think twice.

“I have noticed that underclassmen, juniors and sophomores especially, have taken more precautions,” Dhruv Ray ‘25 said. “Be it where they are going [to eat] or just generally leaving campus, they’ve taken precautions. I’ve especially seen a surge of people pre-ordering their food.”

In an effort to heighten protection for the student population following these incidents, the school administration placed the campus into a secure protocol wherein classes continue as usual but movement into and out of the school is restricted, with any visitors being turned away.

“I like [the secure protocols],” Arjun Kurane ‘26 said. “I’m able to [focus] a little more in class because I feel safe and I don’t feel like [anything dangerous] could happen [in the school]. I feel safe and that carries over to my ability to focus in class.”

Last month, two of these protocols happened within a week of each other — an unusual event, considering previous years have had no more than two of these incidents total. Following these consecutive protocols, many students are now more cautious when leaving campus to eat and have found themselves more aware of the safety of the area surrounding the school. However, some students were not concerned by these incidents.

“[My lunch behavior] has not changed at all,” Ray said. “That’s probably because I’m a senior. I don’t have much concern for [lunch safety] at the moment.”

Following the protocols, Principal Erin Campbell sent messages to the students and their families, alerting them of the situation and what the school policies for remediating the situation. On Thursday, Feb. 27, the school was placed into a secure protocol due to the Austin Police Department (APD) activity around the campus. The protocol started at 12:36 p.m. and lasted until 1:14 p.m. After the protocol was lifted, Ms. Campbell sent an email clarifying the situation. Four days later, on Monday, March 3, a possible gunman in The Lantern Apartments surrounding the school led to another secure protocol that was implemented at 11:30 a.m. and lifted at 12:38 p.m. Following this incident, Ms. Campbell sent another correspondence detailing why the school was placed into a secure protocol. Because these emails provided limited insight into the incidents, many community members were unsatisfied by the information provided, finding that they created more questions than answers.

“Sometimes, it’s a little annoying when we have to stop class,” Harrison Malinger ‘25 said. “But I appreciate it and understand why we do it. [The area around the school] is definitely having more incidents.”

Lately, outside threats have not been the only safety concern. Since the end of March, seniors have been participating in a popular high school game called Assassin. In this game, each student is given a target and must get them out by shooting them with a water gun by a certain deadline, or else they are disqualified. Due to this deadline requirement, some students have taken desperate measures to eliminate their targets to avoid disqualification. As a result, unsafe incidents have occurred in students’ neighborhoods, and Ms. Campbell sent an email on Tuesday, March 25 warning about the dangers of the game.

“Absolutely [the game is a safety concern],” Ray said. “There have been crashes, incidents where parents are not happy, and some incidents where cops have been called. I think trying to keep school out [of the game] is very important.”

Players themselves have voiced numerous concerns about the organization of the game. Some have noted that most of these incidents occurred as a result of a lack of communication between the players and the moderators, while some have claimed rumored preferential treatment of certain players when dealing with controversial incidents, such as dubious eliminations.

“If you look at the [rules] that the organizer [of Assassin] provided for us, it is very brief,” Ray said. “It is only one page long and honestly, it does not provide enough details for [the player] or [their parents]. It would definitely be beneficial to provide more details for clarity.”

Despite increasing safety concerns and danger to students, many students still feel confident in the school’s administration and their ability to protect them. Strong police response, strict secure protocols, and detailed communication have allowed students to study with peace of mind.

“I feel safe at school,” Kurane said. “Seeing the police officers respond to [the incidents] and how quickly they were able to [control] the situation was really cool and made me feel safe. The best part was the emails that Ms. Campbell sent to our parents, giving them that peace of mind.”