Instead of fortifying schools by arming teachers and janitors, let’s discuss a way to make schools safer by eliminating these things.
...and adding these things.
- A computer on every desk and in every student’s home
- Single point of entry to school grounds
- ID cards to enter the campus
- Metal detector at entry point
Books, who needs them?
My son and daughter (high school/university) have classes with no text books at all. Instead they purchase a code that unlocks the learning material online.
No books means, no bookbags, and no lockers. No place to hide that AR-15.
Computers Everywhere
A lesson can be taken from the current distance learning techniques used at online schools. And before you say ‘meh’ to online learning, let me tell you that I earned my Masters Degree online and it was grueling. I’ve never written so much and in such detail at a brick and mortar school. The software was amazing, and included ‘chatrooms’ for discussion and debate, which were monitored and graded by instructors.
Campus Security
This will take some infrastructure work. Particularly at drop off and pickup time, which you may know is very problematic in some schools. I’ve seen moms and dads in minivans turn into blithering idiots trying to get the kids to school and back on the road to go to work.
This needs to happen outside the secure campus zone with supervision for mom and dad (picture the curbside pickup zone at an airport). Hire those people, but teach them some manners.
Students who drive should park outside of this campus zone. Bussed students should disembark outside the zone as well.
The secure campus zone should have a fence. Nothing Trumpian, just a chain link fence or one like the fence around the White House will do nicely. My son’s newer Florida high school is completely fenced in.
Students arriving would then enter the campus through checkpoints with scanned ID cards and pass through a metal detector. With no bookbags this should go relatively smooth with the exception of ladies’s handbags, which would need to be scanned.
Well, what do you think? Any suggestions?