In the last 2 decades, we have seen a clear rise in violent activity across the United States of America. There is a specific area of criminal activity in American society that has taken the public eye along with gang crime and looting, along with a rampant rise in violent school activity, in particular gun violence.
That said, it is time to ask, do schools need more security to combat rises in crime, or is there another solution? Let us look deeper into the history of school crime.
Looking specifically into mass shootings, it would begin in the 1700s in schoolhouses and extend all the way into 1989 with little lasting relevance in the space of schools. This would soon change.
On April 20th, 1999, Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, had a school shooting that caught national attention after 13 were killed and 24 were injured by 2 shooters. It sparked national outrage among many, and for a few individuals, a feeling of understanding for the shooters formed.
This threw every school shooting into the headlines, and it has been like that ever since. More people seem to want to shoot up schools and do violent acts in them. So now that history has been covered, how have schools responded?
Look at the schools who got it the worst, Virginia Tech in 2007 with 33 dead and 22 injured, Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut in 2012 with 27 dead and 2 injured, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Florida in 2018 with 17 dead and 17 injured.
These schools have ramped up security. Stoneman Douglas has security checkpoints where they check your belongings like the airport, along with caged up vending machines.
There are also new ways of combating gun violence. Fruitport High School in Michigan is being constructed with 48 million dollars in funding. This is because it is designed to limit the damage a mass shooter can do as it is inspired by a First-Person Shooter map, like in a video game.
Even our own school Coral Glades High School has a police officer and some unarmed security, but is all this enough? Does there need to be more security?
Right now, Coral Glades security is checking bathrooms for drugs and other dangerous objects, but how would that stop crime in general? Kids can easily avoid bathroom security checks.
There could be more police, but they are already well underfunded. Broward County has passed multiple legislations such as trying to make kids bring a clear backpack to school, which got criticized by everyone so hard they dropped it.
The only real solution that will not really cause an uproar would be more unarmed security or cameras- but now cameras and unarmed security have their limits, meaning they will not be too useful in taking down a shooter.
Even so, there are those that disagree like AnnMarie Hartman in the 10th grade. When asked if schools need more security she said “No, they’re already annoying and they are not doing their job.”
Yet there are others that think the schools and county do not go far enough. “There should be a security guard for each class, and they should be assistants to teachers when they’re not being a security guard,” says Sarah Veronica, a 9th grader. Suffice it to say, there is a variety of opinions.
In conclusion, security in school is a controversial topic- some people think they are a waste of resources, which causes them to think outside of the box for new and inventive ways of reducing crime, specifically gun crime.
Others think that counties and schools do not do enough and should go beyond in taking out crime, practically turning the school into a police station. Yet the real answer to this question really relies on the situation your schools are in. If you are at Stoneman Douglas, you might want security, but if you are in some Wyoming School House in the middle of nowhere, chances are you will be fine.
