By: Kalyssa Chu, Staff Writer

The Mills administration is prohibiting the entrance of non-Mills high schoolers—excluding visitors from the opposing school—into football games as part of new safety procedures implemented during this year’s football season. The rule will be enforced with mandatory ID checks at entrance, requiring all students to show a physical student ID to confirm their identity.

This decision emerges from safety concerns following a series of unsafe incidents around Mills last year, including a gunned robbery on the nearby Spur Trail after a home football game against Saratoga High School.

“It’s our job to ensure safety,” Mills’ Assistant Principal Jonathan White stated. “More measures…put in place to prevent incidents from happening will [allow for] a safer environment that our students and fans can enjoy when going to the games.”

This restriction comes as part of a multitude of safety measures implemented at football games, including mandatory bag checks and partnership with the San Mateo County school resource officer.

Mills student Lucy Esquivel (10) said she’s glad that Mills is practicing safety precautions at the games. “Things like bag checks make me less worried about people bringing in stuff that’s not cool and possibly harmful,” she stated.

However, Esquivel is worried that the new rule forbidding outside students from attending games will hinder the spirit of the classic Friday night lights.

“All kinds of people should be allowed to enjoy our games and help us build a bigger community of support,” she noted, “I think that if we’re invited to other people’s games, other people should be invited to our games, as well.”

For now, this rule only applies to football games. However, it may be implemented for other athletic contests that anticipate large crowd sizes, such as basketball quads in the winter.

Regardless, White emphasizes that Mills’ main priority is to ultimately “be able to provide the most secure environment that we possibly can for all sports.”