Myth: Schools located in cities and those in suburbs will naturally have different security practices.
You might conclude that a school in the city might be more likely to require students to pass through a metal detector on their way to class, while one in the suburbs might not have a metal detector, but instead enforce routine locker raids and have surveillance cameras throughout the facility. Recent findings, however, show that the location of a school has very little to do with their security measures.
Fact: Schools with a higher percentage of minority students are more likely to use metal detectors as part of the security practices.
Researchers at The University of Delaware and The University of California, Irvine, found that schools in high poverty neighborhoods serving a higher ratio of minority students are more likely to use metal detectors. They determined that the use of metal detectors in schools had no clear boundaries as to location. Instead, they found that the percentage of minority students made a difference in whether or not metal detectors were part of the facilities security practices.
“It’s not that the more violent schools get metal detectors, or even the urban schools get metal detectors—though that’s true,” said Aaron Kupchik, an associate professor in sociology at the University of Delaware. “It’s that schools with more students of color are more likely to get metal detectors, at every level, even elementary schools.”
Researchers found that schools with a higher concentration of poor students were more likely then schools with fewer low-income families to have a full-time security officer, drug-sniffing dogs, locked gates in elementary schools, and metal detectors in middle school. The study also showed that in schools were parents were more involved, metal detectors were less likely. In such schools with high levels of parent involvement, a full-time security officer was more likely.
Fact: Only 10% of schools in the US have metal detectors.
Daniel A. Domenech, the executive director of the Arlington, VA.-based American Association of School Administrators, said that administrators don’t take into account demographics when designing their school’s security plans. He said, they usually tend to respond to violent incidents and national trends. “Nobody is going to say we have a school and our students are all minorities and they’re poor, so we need to put more security on that building.”
Myth: Metal detectors reduce school campus crime.
You might believe that the presence of a metal detector on campus would deter students from bringing a weapon on to campus, and certainly it would detect those were carrying one. However, some evidence suggests that stiff security measures are not be as effective as administrators think.
Fact: In February, 2011, the Journal of School Health released an analysis of 15 years’ worth of research on metal detectors, concluding there was “insufficient evidence” that their use decreased crime or violence in schools. It found that the presence of metal detectors made students feel less safe.
Fact: A January 2011 study using data from the School Crime Supplement of the National Crime Victimization Survey found that the most effective security measure in schools was the presence of an adult in school hallways. Adult presence proved to decrease the amount of peer bullying.
Additional ISM articles of interest:
ISM Monthly Update for Risk Managers Vol. 1 No. 5 Target Hardening
Private School News Vol. 10 No. 7 School Shooting Lawsuit Raises Risk Management Concerns
Additional Resources for Consortium Members
I&P Vol. 36 No. 11 Establish a ‘Key’ Policy/Security System
I&P Vol. 26 No. 3 Search and Seizure Policies and Procedures
To The Point Vol. 9 No. 1 The Risk Management Audit: Where Are You Now?
