Security In Schools - Inner City vs Suburbs

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.


LM Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS