I went to high
school in a high-security fortress. You don’t want that for your kids.
I went to high school in a high-security fortress. You don’t want that for your kids.
Upping security at schools makes students paranoid and miserable; it doesn’t make them safe.
I was 16 years old on April 20, 1999, when two teens in a central
Colorado town walked into a high school with shotguns, homemade bombs, a
carbine rifle, and a TEC-9, killing 13 people and injuring 24 more
before committing suicide. I was 660 miles away, in Texas, and I had no
idea how much the fallout from Columbine would change my life.
In
1999, I was a weird teenager in my freshman year, prone to wearing all
black and reading books instead of paying attention to my teacher. I was
a good student, but I didn’t like going to class and experienced some
garden-variety bullying: physical and verbal intimidation that rarely
got overtly violent.
I didn’t realize it then, but I was extremely
privileged. Allen, Texas is a suburb north of Dallas with a population
of around 99,000 and an obscene median income. It’s also one of the
safest cities in the country. If you’ve ever heard of Allen at all, it
may be because the district built a $60 million football stadium for its high school team.
The
day after the massacre in Colorado, I went to class like it was a
normal day. I didn’t know it yet, but my classmates and I wouldn’t end
up finishing up the academic year. Days after the shooting, a series of
bomb threats would cause a wave of panic throughout the city, leading to
multiple school evacuations and, eventually, administrators shutting
down the entire district. The schools reopened for the last few weeks of
the semester, but kids didn’t go back to class.
High school already sucks. Believe me when I tell you that a massive uptick in security makes it worse.
When
we returned to school in August, this time to a brand new
multimillion-dollar campus, things were different. Teachers ran metal
detectors at the entrance. Armed police officers roamed the halls, which
were outfitted with security cameras. Teachers and cops stopped kids at
random and searched their bags; there were no lockers, and kids had to
wear mesh or clear backpacks so they couldn’t smuggle in guns or drugs.
School didn’t feel safe; it felt like a guarded fortress.
Almost
20 years later, it feels like history is repeating itself. After the
shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School this February reignited
the debate around gun control and school safety, some politicians are
using the same logic as my school district did: Just outfit schools with
cops, cameras, and metal detectors, and everything will go away.
President Donald Trump wants to arm teachers — and a school district in northern Georgia has moved forward with plans to do just that. Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed plan
for making schools safer involves more cops in schools, metal
detectors, and bulletproof glass. In March, he signed into law a smaller
version of that plan, which raises the age requirements to buy firearms
in the state, sets aside funds for mental health counseling, and allows trained social workers to carry guns in public schools.
The STOP School Violence Act of 2018 — which has bipartisan support and
proposes distributing $50 million in federal grant money for public
schools to hire more cops, among other things — is working its way through congress.
The bill includes the use of “evidence-based strategies and programs to
prevent violence,” and indicates those strategies should include the
use of “appropriate technologies,” such as metal detectors.
The
conversation has intensified since a shooting at Sante Fe High School in
Texas claimed 10 lives on May 18. “There are too many entrances and too
many exits to our over 8,000 campuses,” Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said during a press conference after the shooting.
“There aren’t enough people to put a guard at every entrance and exit…
Maybe we need to look at limiting the entrances and exits into our
schools.” In a follow-up interview, he blamed school shootings on violent video games and advocated for arming teachers.
Trust me. It won’t work. High school already sucks. Believe me when I tell you that a massive uptick in security makes it worse.
