Mirror mirror on the wall creates awareness in the halls

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A quarter-shaped dome mirror located in the northeast side of the building.

Aras Dambrauskas and Nojus Navickas

The school recently installed mirrors on the walls of most of the staircases and narrow hallways around the school. 

In a survey of 117 students, 31% have not noticed the addition of these mirrors. According to Assistant Principal Brent Gagnon, the installation process for these mirrors took place over spring break.

These new additions are called dome mirrors, which are spherical indoor mirrors with the sole purpose of providing visibility for students, staff and first aid responders. They offer a panoramic view of an area and assist in eliminating blind spots, such as turns in a staircase and corners in narrow hallways.

Pie chart of the results from LHS students on April 17-19, 2023. (Nojus Navickas)
A half-shaped dome mirror located by the Commons. (Nojus Navickas)

As Gagnon explained, “The absolute main purpose of those mirrors was that if we ever had an active threat in this building, that the police and fire and any first responders that came in the building would have a better visual of where people are and where people are moving to and from.” 

Dome mirrors are very similar to traffic mirrors, which are most commonly used in areas such as driveways, crosswalks, entrances and exits. There are two types of dome mirrors installed in the building: quarter (90 degree point of view) mirrors and half (180 degree point of view) mirrors.

Originally, two dome mirrors have been in the main office for a couple of years now; one is located in the corner of the narrow counselor hallway and the other one is by the secretaries. Since Gagnon and school resource officer Robert Keane are responsible for the safety and security of the school, they came up with the idea to install more of the mirrors around the building. 

Gagnon said the mirrors were “one of the real small inexpensive things to really boost our schools safety and also security,” which is one of the main reasons that these were implemented.

Dome mirrors have become a popular choice among school administrators nationwide because of its shatterproof material, installation, and price.

“All of those mirrors combined were like under one thousand dollars,” Gagnon said.