Safety in our Schools

In response to the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech, there has been extensive discussion about the issue of school safety. Of course this is not a new discussion in Baltimore City, but this event is a painful reminder that school safety must be a top priority when it comes to school reform. The question of how to improve school safety, however, is not an easy one to answer. Most school violence originates outside of school buildings, but increasingly it is making its way into our corridors and classrooms. Nobody wants to feel like they are entering a high security prison when they arrive at school, but it seems as though this is the direction we are headed.

As Sara Neufold describes in her article, “10 More City Schools to get Surveillance,” it seems that blanketing our schools with digital video cameras is the most recent strategy to combat school violence. Within the last year, over two million dollars have been spent installing video cameras at Baltimore City public schools. How affective have these cameras been as a deterrent? I was shocked to find out that with 99 video cameras, my school now has more cameras than any other school in the city. In theory, no part of the building should be unmonitored. Unfortunately, however, this year has been far more violent than last, and rarely do the cameras help school police apprehend offenders. One reason for this is that many of the cameras no longer work properly.

School officials and police can monitor school grounds by watching a wall of screens in our school police office. However, as one BCPSS principal replied when asked who watches the monitors, "I wish we had someone to do that. We are instructional leaders. We are in the classroom." In other words, even if the technology worked correctly, no one is hired to watch the monitors so no one is there to notice when crimes are unfolding. Occasionally police can use the video footage as evidence in after-the-fact, but by then the damage has already been done.

In the words of Kenneth Trump, president of a Cleveland-based safety consulting firm, “security equipment is only as good as the human effort behind it.” This is also true of metal detectors, which is another strategy that has received much attention of late. Clearly, technology alone cannot solve the problem. We must also invest human capital to improve school safety. Most importantly, we must address the root of the problem and help our students find more productive, and less violent ways of dealing with their conflicts and emotions. Without this effort, all of the security equipment in the world won’t save us.

Please visit the following link to read the article referenced above:
http://www.populistamerica.com/10_more_city_schools_to_get_surveillance