Tucked in the corner of the library, there are two doors that lead into one of the few peaceful places in the school.

The AP resource room provides students in rigorous courses with an escape from the school day. It was opened during the spring of 2012 with the intent of designating an area for students in AP classes to collaborate with each other on school work, or for them to work without the distractions they would normally be presented with in the lunch room or in the other resource rooms.

Recently, those distractions have been attempting to infiltrate the one place AP students go to avoid them. Dean Suzanne Eytel expressed her concern with the amount of students she, and other faculty members, have observed taking advantage of the lack of security in the room.

“It’s not supposed to be a lounge area,” Eytel said. “There are other resource rooms for other students.”

Due to these recent observations, many of the faculty members have been cracking down on security measures. In addition to the door leading into the hallway being locked, security guards have been periodically putting students’ names through the system to make sure that they are in AP classes.

The point of the door being locked is so the only entrance into the room is through the library. This way students can sign in and the librarians can keep track of who is coming in and out of the room.

“It’s a safety issue,” Eytel said. “We’re just trying to keep it under control.”

Associative Principal of Instruction Glenn Simon says that he has also noticed things going on in the resource room, such as the lights being left off, students being disruptive or the room being too crowded. This causes issues for the students who are actually in there to work.

“It is designed for AP students,” Simon said. “It’s used for group or individual study, and when it’s used that way, I like it.”

With the resource room becoming more and more popular, regular users are finding that they are losing the peace and quiet that they were seeking when they came to the room in the first place.

“I think that it’s a good idea to keep it as an AP room,” senior Megan Frintner said. “It would get too out of control otherwise.”

It is this issue of the room getting too crowded and out of control that threatens the privilege to use it at all. If students continue to overlook the guidelines set down for the resource room, they may not be able to use it at all.

“I would suggest to the students who are using the room for a good purpose that if they want it available to them, they need to monitor their peers,” Simon said.

The school opened up a room with access to computers, a couch and space to meet up with other students to seek help on assignments. With this, they entrusted Elk Grove’s AP students to keep an eye on it and make sure everything remains productive.

According to Simon, it is not enough for the teachers to tighten up security; for the sake of those who use the room for its intended purpose, students need to take matters into their own hands as well.

“It should be student-managed,” Simon said. “This community of learners should be able to regulate their own space.”

By Kerry Souder