Operation SAFE hasn’t cleared all the guns out of Chicago’s schools, but its success has intrigued other districts. Nearly a quarter of all major urban high schools now use metal detectors; what’s different in Chicago is the surprise factor. The district moves its three walk-through detectors from school to school on a random basis. “A lot of school districts want to put detectors in every school and use them every day,” says Sams. “It won’t work. If kids know they have to pass through a metal detector, they’ll get the guns into schools through windows or back doors.” Another key component is cooperation between city cops (150 of them paid for by the district to patrol Chicago’s 70 public high schools) and 412 unarmed security officers. While as a rule police searches require probable cause, in school settings authorities can act on the less stringent standard of reasonable suspicion. In Chicago, once a guard’s suspicions prove on target, a police officer can make the arrest.
Legality aside, many school-safety experts worry about turning campuses into armed camps. Arguably, the message search-and-seize tactics convey to kids is: don’t get caught. Instead, many educators believe schools won’t be safe unless they can find a way to instill basic values of right and wrong, and teach young people to respect themselves and others. Some of the best proposals from the nation’s experts:
Teacher training needs to prepare instructors to deal with disruptive students and to break up fights-before they escalate into murder. The Nation Safety Center (NSSC) has developed a training program in crisis prevention, management and resolution. Too many teachers come to class unprepared-like the one who told NSSC executive director Ronald D. Stephens, “I got my training the day the kids pointed the gun at my face.”
Schools need to identify fight-prone kids when they’re young and introduce them to nonviolent alternatives. Schools can help by offering peer mediation, clear-cut standards for behavior and consistent discipline. But the lessons have to begin at home. Researchers believe that children who witness violent altercations among parents are likely to use weapons themselves. In certain communities, such violence is far from rare. In a study published in 1990, Chicago psychiatrist Carl Bell found that 74 percent of the 1,000 inner-city schoolchildren screened had witnessed a killing, stabbing, shooting or robbery.
Schools need more adults on campus to provide supervision. Paul Kingery, director of health promotion at Texas A&M University, believes principals should have parents conduct “safety watches,” especially at tense events such as football games. Businesses can help by giving time of for employees who want to participate in school programs. And parents should pay attention to signs their kids may be hanging out with a bad crowd-if teens suddenly have a lot of cash to throw around, for example.
An estimated 80 to 90 percent of gun-toting kids get their firearms at home. Les Burton, a man whose job as chief of police for Houston’s schools is itself a sign of the times, believes communities should conduct programs to teach parents how to handle and store their guns. Several states, including California, Iowa, Connecticut and Florida, now have laws that make adults responsible for crimes committed by children wielding their weapons. But while it’s important to keep firearms away from kids, forbidding toy guns might actually backfire. Children need to discharge their aggressive feelings, not bottle them up. “Shooting games provide outlets for accumulated frustrations and thus are apt to reduce them,” wrote child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim.
Cities like Oakland and Los Angeles, and even small towns such as Cokeville, Wyo., have started DBS (drive-by shooting) drills and “drop drills,” teaching kids how to hit the floor when gunfire breaks out. It’s a sad day when DBS replaces the ABCs, but for too many kids, the No. 1 lesson is staying alive.
title: “How To Keep Kids Safe” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-21” author: “Carol Jordan”
Operation SAFE hasn’t cleared all the guns out of Chicago’s schools, but its success has intrigued other districts. Nearly a quarter of all major urban high schools now use metal detectors; what’s different in Chicago is the surprise factor. The district moves its three walk-through detectors from school to school on a random basis. “A lot of school districts want to put detectors in every school and use them every day,” says Sams. “It won’t work. If kids know they have to pass through a metal detector, they’ll get the guns into schools through windows or back doors.” Another key component is cooperation between city cops (150 of them paid for by the district to patrol Chicago’s 70 public high schools) and 412 unarmed security officers. While as a rule police searches require probable cause, in school settings authorities can act on the less stringent standard of reasonable suspicion. In Chicago, once a guard’s suspicions prove on target, a police officer can make the arrest.
Legality aside, many school-safety experts worry about turning campuses into armed camps. Arguably, the message search-and-seize tactics convey to kids is: don’t get caught. Instead, many educators believe schools won’t be safe unless they can find a way to instill basic values of right and wrong, and teach young people to respect themselves and others. Some of the best proposals from the nation’s experts:
Teacher training needs to prepare instructors to deal with disruptive students and to break up fights-before they escalate into murder. The Nation Safety Center (NSSC) has developed a training program in crisis prevention, management and resolution. Too many teachers come to class unprepared-like the one who told NSSC executive director Ronald D. Stephens, “I got my training the day the kids pointed the gun at my face.”
Schools need to identify fight-prone kids when they’re young and introduce them to nonviolent alternatives. Schools can help by offering peer mediation, clear-cut standards for behavior and consistent discipline. But the lessons have to begin at home. Researchers believe that children who witness violent altercations among parents are likely to use weapons themselves. In certain communities, such violence is far from rare. In a study published in 1990, Chicago psychiatrist Carl Bell found that 74 percent of the 1,000 inner-city schoolchildren screened had witnessed a killing, stabbing, shooting or robbery.
Schools need more adults on campus to provide supervision. Paul Kingery, director of health promotion at Texas A&M University, believes principals should have parents conduct “safety watches,” especially at tense events such as football games. Businesses can help by giving time of for employees who want to participate in school programs. And parents should pay attention to signs their kids may be hanging out with a bad crowd-if teens suddenly have a lot of cash to throw around, for example.
An estimated 80 to 90 percent of gun-toting kids get their firearms at home. Les Burton, a man whose job as chief of police for Houston’s schools is itself a sign of the times, believes communities should conduct programs to teach parents how to handle and store their guns. Several states, including California, Iowa, Connecticut and Florida, now have laws that make adults responsible for crimes committed by children wielding their weapons. But while it’s important to keep firearms away from kids, forbidding toy guns might actually backfire. Children need to discharge their aggressive feelings, not bottle them up. “Shooting games provide outlets for accumulated frustrations and thus are apt to reduce them,” wrote child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim.
Cities like Oakland and Los Angeles, and even small towns such as Cokeville, Wyo., have started DBS (drive-by shooting) drills and “drop drills,” teaching kids how to hit the floor when gunfire breaks out. It’s a sad day when DBS replaces the ABCs, but for too many kids, the No. 1 lesson is staying alive.
