Keeping our campuses safe has become a very serious topic or at least it needs to be, as incidents are happening more frequently than not. Parents, communities, and the media want a tangible guarantee for security at schools like metal detectors, but are metal detectors the answer to the security problem in our schools? The more research I do, the more I lean towards, not so much.
First of all, it would be very costly. Where in the world would schools get funding for metal detectors? The government? Not a chance! Even if there was a special grant they could receive, how would they be able to continue to pay for the upkeep such as maintenance, replacements and operation staff?
Secondly, how would metal detectors help in the cases when such incidents occur outside on school grounds? It doesn’t seem as though the security of metal detectors could enhanced a student’s safety enough to prevent those types of incidents.
Lastly, how would the school districts avoid making schools feel as “prison-like” environments. Ultimately in this case, I believe that school spirit would probably be directly impacted in a negative way with such protocols.
At this point, I don’t think metal detectors would benefit schools very much, but perhaps putting a strong protocol in place may help improve the feeling of security back in schools, parents and the community. By creating programs that help educate and promote these protocols to students and parents throughout the year and year after year, I am certain it would make a difference in preparing for such incidents. I believe that most fall outs happen from the lack of education, so if our schools could just spend a bit more time emphasizing on the importance of knowing what to do in certain situations, with conducting mock drills and information sessions, it may better the outcomes of tragic events.
2 comments:
I have to agree with you on this topic, I don’t think that metal detectors will help keep the school system safe. The amount of money that is going to be spent is just unreasonable, even if and when it comes from the government; it is a big deal trying to keep up with the maintenance of things as is. Also, it is impossible like you said to be able to keep students from being harmed outside of school grounds such as the playgrounds etc. It will also as you mentioned make students feel as if they are in a prison, which is something that a parent nor a student would want. It puts a damper on things kids are there to learn not to feel as if they are prisoners and unsafe.
Overall, I believe that it if the metal detectors are not going to benefit anyone in any way then they should not be put up. School officials should just stick to exercising caution to dodge overreaction, the reflex reactions and the pull to put up these types of equipments after incidents that have occurred in other schools to ease parents the community and the media. Doing this may just stir a false sense of security that will potentially rebound on school officials in the long run.
My school couldn’t possibly have been safer. There were probably two fights per year and half of them involved open fists. I never felt physically threatened in any way, and in hindsight, I was really lucky. I’m interested in this issue in terms of the psychological effects and how much violence metal detectors can realistically prevent.
Teenagers go through enough already and being forced to worry about their safety at school would compound that stress astronomically. You’re right that the irony is that efforts to make a school a safer place can makes students feel less safe. According to SchoolSecurity.org, “Opponents of metal detectors in schools frequently oppose them out of their belief that metal detectors will create a "prison-like" environment and thereby adversely implicate the climate of the school.” It could certainly be argued that the presence of metal detectors would inadvertently act as a self-fulfilling prophecy for students who might not otherwise tend towards violence. If the message is sent that they’re dangerous, perhaps they will be. On the other hand, you wouldn’t make this argument about airport security. The possibility of devastating violence supplants the need to make it seem safe and comfortable, as if the threat of danger isn’t present. And if there weren’t metal detectors in airports, travelers wouldn’t be any less scared to fly. They’re not scared by the metal detectors, but rather their knowledge of events in which people were killed on planes.
You make a great point about how the equipment, maintenance, and staff will be paid for. It simply isn’t practical. If a metal detector in a high-risk school prevents one on-campus murder over the course of a decade, isn’t that worth the cost? From a purely economic point of view, maybe not -- but you can’t put a price on a life, and that’s the dilemma.
I don’t really understand your proposal that rather than taking extreme measures to prevent weapons from entering a campus, everyone should know what to do when a crisis happens. Bottom line, metal detectors would significantly reduce the likelihood of serious violence in a school, and I’d rather my school feel like a prison than a war zone.
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