Safety at school

While the students have enjoyed their time off for the summer, school administration officials and school safety resource officers have been busy preparing for the fall, when the kids return to school.

They hope the preparations will make for a safer school year. The approaches have been varied.

Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Safety resource officers joined conferences during the summer to increase their awareness of school safety. They also conducted safety assessments on the different schools in the city. As a result of the assessments, security cameras and a wrought-iron fence were installed at one high school. In another high school, the school district required students to wear uniforms starting this year.

Teachers practiced safety procedures to adopt during lockdowns. Resources officers had training sessions in crisis management and school safety, and briefed on the exercise of law enforcement authority granted to them for the coming school year.

Detroit, Michigan

The Detroit Public Schools system decided to establish police mini-stations. Since some schools in the system were shut down, the affected students will be transferred to five other schools. Parents were seriously concerned, because of the great likelihood that fierce rivals, once separated, will become classmates. These are the schools that will get the mini-stations. Two police officers in each school will be patrolling the campus. The mini-stations are not expected to solve all security problems, but they represent a resolute initial attempt.

New York City

The city has 1,200 public high schools, and 86 of these have permanent metal detectors. Some schools also employ bag checks and hand-held metal detectors. There are also the safety officers, who are civilian members of the NY Police. The mayor and police are taking no chances, after several crimes in schools resulted in serious complaints from parents worried about the safety of their children.

The safety has come at a price. While violent crimes in schools have gone down, faculty, students and civil liberties activists have expressed concern about the growing police presence. The NYPD is fielding over four thousand safety agents to patrol over 90 percent of the city’s public schools.

Safety concerns in public schools have remained at high levels. But the schools and the police are all set to try making schools safer. As a Hattiesburg school resource officer said, there are no guarantees that nothing will happen, but there is hope that the measures now in place will provide more safety.