Metal Detectors In Schools

Metal detectors in schools pose more of a threat than a sense of security. Every student carries metal of some form on them. Pens, pencils, notebooks and other school supplies all contain metals. If we try to make schools “safer” by placing metal detectors in the entrance and exit of every school building. With many school shootings and stabbings, media and parents have proposed new safety measures. Placing metal detectors and spending extra time on safety management takes time away from class and funding for school resources.

Placing metal detectors in schools places more anxiety instead of safety for students and staff members. “Ken Trump, president of Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services, believes metal detectors
are an unsustainable, knee-jerk political reaction. He cautions against their use for practical reasons like cost, and because they are often seen as a replacement for better strategies.” (Steele) Putting metal detectors in the schools would be expensive and is a way to replace just normal day to day safety measures. Most of the time, a student will see a weapon of some kind and will report it. Everyone has metal on them in some form. Students and staff should practice what to do if there is threat inside of the school or someone suspects there might be a school threat. Every school already practices these kinds of daily safety measures. These measures work better than metal detectors because people take more time to design those safety measures than students walking through a machine.

“In America, black students are five times more likely than their white peers to have to walk through metal detectors into school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Hispanic students are more than twice as likely.”(myers) Metal detectors are more racially directed than safety directed. People of color are profiled more by metal detectors and other safety measures than white students. Racial profiling has already been an issue in the past for students and now, adding metal detectors, students of color will be targeted more. “Students from households making less than $15,000 a year are nearly four times more likely to go through such daily searches than those from households earning $50,000 or more.”(myers). Lower income students are far more likely to be targets of bag searches than those who come from wealthy families. The more students are targeted, the less likely they are to come to school. Metal detectors spark more anxiety than safety.
In conclusion, if we place metal detectors in schools, students will feel unsafe and will spend more time being searched by staff members than sitting in class learning. Students of race and low income families will be scared to come to school because they will wear a biased target on their backs
everyday.