If you didn't know, schools in the inner city have METAL DETECTORS. Yep, you heard me, metal detectors.
Not all of them, but many of the high schools in Washington DC do. It was a shock to my son who goes to school in a quiet suburban neighborhood who visited is cousin's school in DC for a teen conference on cellphone use.
He witnessed the kids, playing basketball and football on a concrete slab on an enclosed playground surrounded by brick walls.
For me, growing up in the city, it wasn't a shock or a surprise.
INNER CITY SCHOOL SECURITY
You see, having these protective measures in inner city schools seem viable. Does it keep weapons out of the school?
Yes, most of the time. But the crime? It's still there. To combat that, most of these schools also have ARMED security.
SUBURBAN SCHOOL SECURITY
Now my kid's schools have more of a subtle approach to security. It's there in the form of Security Guards with concealed weapons. But there aren't as many guards and there are NO METAL DETECTORS.
Why not? With all the recent publicized school shootings being in the suburban neighborhoods, why aren't they putting metal detectors and visibly armed security guards in the schools?
SHOULD ALL SCHOOLS have metal detectors, visible armed security guards and stepped up security?
As a parent I say yes, but the thought of sending my kid to school with the message that they are in danger, and they can't be trusted is a feeling I'm not willing to combat. For now my kids don't understand that level of security in schools as a normal instance, and I hope they never will have to.
3 comments:
I have no objection to metal detectors as school, but I'm not sure how I would like it funded.
I would like to see local law enforcement invited into the schools to come up with a joint program, some sort of pilot in one school and see how that takes off. Pool current resources and make it happen.
Also, if someone wants to hurt you at school, they will hurt you, metal or no metal. Even locked down prisoners find ways to make shivs out of things like plastic and ceramic. However, a metal detector would help in saving lives, because a person with a gun can harm more people more quickly than any knife could.
I think the future will see all schools having metal detectors.
I'm so sad about having to teach our children to fear, but it seems that's what comes with high density living. I even wrote a metal detector into one of my books. It made a great contrast between my character's previous school in the suburbs and her new one in the inner city.
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