Airports can be protected with security - but for some reason people think this impossible for schools?

Question

School Safety (worse now - this is an old study!)

* Between 1994 and 1999, there were 220 school associated violent events resulting in 253 deaths - - 74.5% of these involved firearms. Handguns caused almost 60% of these deaths. (Journal of American Medical Association, December 2001)
* In 1998-99 academic year, 3,523 students were expelled for bringing a firearm to school. This is a decrease from the 5,724 students expelled in 1996-97 for bringing a firearm to school. (U.S. Department of Education, October 2000)
* Nearly 8% of adolescents in urban junior and senior high schools miss at least one day of school each month because they are afraid to attend. (National Mental Health & Education Center for Children & Families, National Association of School Psychologists 1998)
* The National School Boards Association estimates that more than 135,000 guns are brought into U.S. schools each day. (NSBA, 1993)
http://www.neahin.org/programs/schoolsafety/gunsafety/statistics.htm

Answer 1

I agree with above....it would be too expensive for the school districts to have an on-campus officer.

On the other hand, If the school boards would stop squandering the tax payers' money on useless, needless things, there WOULD be enough money in the budget for an officer to be on school grounds. ALL school boards and communities need to take a look at this.

Answer 2

Well, think of it like this. If they put in security systems, guards, cameras, and all the other things airports have, it will be just like in the movies. Irrate parents that don't want their children treated like convicts, Teachers that will feel it is enterupting the student's education, angry tax payers hollering it's a waste of money, and the students getting mad because they'll feel they have no freedom anywhere. You are right, we do need to protect our children, but with a neutral decision. I'm sure if anyone had a solution, besides home schooling everyone, the school systems would love any suggestions. Maybe they should put Bible study back in schools to teach kids right from wrong, Lord knows the other way isn't working! Thumbs up, very good issue to bring up.

Answer 3

Actually, the thing is that airports only have the illusion of security. The problem is there are always loopholes and ways around most security implimentations, which someone who wants to do harm will find. It does have a psychological effect on some potential threats, but someone who really wants to can get by security (just look at the number of weapons, etc. confiscated in maximum security prisons from long time inmates...).

Answer 4

i imagine it helps... a touch. If it became being carried out properly, with scrutiny contained in the right places and some theory in the back of better screenings then it could be better sensible. i imagine portion of it really is airways overlaying their butts. If yet another 9/11 got here about and there wasn't tightened safe practices on the airports human beings will be in an uproar and questioning why no longer some thing became carried out. i imagine all of us recognize that you'll convey liquid lip-gloss on a plane. i imagine that air go back and forth is a privilege and not in any respect a suitable, so in case you do not opt for to head by it, stress a automobile.

Answer 5

You can't lock school doors from the inside and students will let people in through unmonitored doors. It will take more money to improve security this is difficult for school systems facing budget problems. Volunteers from the local community can help. They can be the extra eyes needed to keep doors closed and keep people out of the school that should not be there.

Answer 6

I don't necessarily disagree with your sentiments, but look at it this way:

According to the American School Directory, there are about 105,000 K-12 schools in the U.S. (http://www.asd.com/)

There are 28 major airports in the U.S. (http://www.airwise.com/airports/usboard.html). Let's say there are 10 times as many local and regional airports, for a total of 300.

While I can't find an exact number, let's assume that the Transportation Security Administration has 100,000 employees screening passengers at airports. (The actual number is somewhat lower. The most recent number I could find was around 62,000 in 2002.)

Now let's say that, on average, each school building has only four doors. And let's add assume that the parents don't want to get their kids to school extra early so they can wait in line to enter through only one of those doors.

So each door has to be guarded while the arriving students are searched or pass through a metal detector. That means we'd need 420,000 school door screeners.

You see where I'm going with this.

Shootings at schools are dramatic, and they attract a lot of media attention. But, despite the fact that a lot of kids take a lot of guns to school every day, incidents are very rare. There are more than 54 million children in grades K-12 in the U.S. (http://factfinder.census.gov/jsp/saff/SAFFInfo.jsp?_pageId=tp5_education). More than 99.9 percent of them go to school every morning and arrive home safely every day.

It's unlikely that taxpayers would be willing to foot the bill for enough security in schools to eliminate shootings altogether.

A couple of other notes:

-- In the District of Columbia, which has pretty aggressive security in public schools, shootings are more likely to happen outside the building, on school grounds or in the nearby neighborhood. The bad guys can't get the gun inside the building, so they wait for the kids to come out after school.

-- In two of the three most recent shootings, the shooters were adult men. One of them dressed like a student and gained entry by mingling with a crowd of students reentering the building. The other was in an Amish school, which probably wouldn't have security just on general principle.

-- In March 2005, a student, who had earlier killed his grandfather and a companion, shot and killed a school *security guard* before he killed another employee, five students, and himself. (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html)

-- Nadine Kaslow, professor and chief psychologist at Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta, says that only 1 percent of homicides of school-age children have occurred in or around school grounds. (http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/penn.causes.reut/. Accessed October 3, 2006.)

My point: No easy answers.

Answer 7

There are many high schools that have metal detectors and screening device in place. I think that they need to be installed in all schools. I think it would be safer for parents to school children in their homes at this point but it isn't always doable in most households.

Answer 8

3 schools in a week with shootings. how many are not reported at all? even gun controls cannot correct a nut with a vengence.

Answer 9

That would be a wonderful thing.
However, the liberals would be against it. Putting security in our schools would be taking away our freedoms....you know, like being able to bring a gun to school.
Damn Liberals!!
I would really like to see something like that in place.

Answer 10

this is beacuse schools are not that easy to filter like airports! you never know when someone can just snap ar plan out a shooting. it is harder to classify these things.