School Shootings - How will a summit help?

Bush administration hopes to quell school violence - CNN.com

People talk and talk about how to keep children safe when they are in school. Sometimes they even come up with a solution that will hopefully quell the problem. Often, that means metal detectors and/or security personnel, which costs the cash-strapped school districts plenty of money, leaving even less for the core business of teaching. But in all their talks of looking for solutions and answers, they never seem to understand that the entire premise that the current public education system is a huge hindrance to any good solution.

The basic fact is that if there was no "public" education system, as we have it now, but all we had was schools run by companies, there would be A LOT more security in place in a lot more schools, compared to what we have now.

Think of it this way: If you normal shop for groceries at Smith's, but you hear about a shooting at a Smith's somewhere, wouldn't you feel less safe every time you went to a Smith's and walked right in the door without so much as anyone giving you a second glance? Wouldn't you worry about the guy with the big coat, that maybe he's going to rob the place or shoot it up? Then after another Smith's shooting, wouldn't you seriously consider not going back to Smith's if you could go somewhere else?

Now let's say you see an ad on TV for Albertson's. They've seen all the shootings, and have decided that they want to put in place some serious store security. So they advertise it, tell you they have security, and that you're safe at their stores. Well, Albertson's is right across the street from Smith's. So why not go there instead, where you feel safer?

So, when safety is a concern in the business world, the companies that provide more safety enjoy more customers and more revenues. Those that don't lose money and/or go out of business. Well, in the world of public schools, it is as if we have only 1 company in the world that provides this service, and you have to go there. If they don't provide good security, you can't go anywhere else, because they are all run by the same company and all provide the same lousy level of security. Catch my drift?

So if we had school run by different private companies, and everyone got to choose where to send their kids, then security would be a SELLING POINT for these schools, something to attract more customers, not something that they can't do anything about, like today's public schools.

But since few people out there realize that a public education system is one of the 10 planks of communism, as Carl Marx wrote, we're not likely to move away from the socialist school system any time soon. So can we be more intelligent about how we design and/or operate our schools so as to improve security without spending inordinate amounts of the education budget? YES! Here are a few ideas:

Fewer Entrances - If you've ever been to a primary, middle, or high school, you probably know that there seem to be more doors into the school than you could ever keep track of. Well, the truth is that the school can't keep track of them. I think back to my High School, which was built in the 80's, and is probably pretty typical. It had literally dozens of entrances into the building, all of which were unlocked during school hours, and none of which were ever monitored. Anyone can walk in by these doors and have easy access to plenty of students. We need to design schools to have only a handful of entrances, all of which can be continuously monitored in real-time. You can always have a bunch of emergency exit doors if you need to, but regular entrances and exits should be limited.

Access Control - These building house our greatest asset, our children! We'd never think of storing piles of gold in our schools the way they are designed today. But we'll send our most prized possesions, our kids, to them each and every day without a second thought. We should be guarding our schools like they were Fort Knox! Ok, maybe that would be a bit overboard, but you get the idea. Why don't we have swipable picture ID badges for all kids at a school? They need to swipe it to get into the school (at any of the very few entrances), and they can then swipe them to verify they are in class (rather than taking roll), swipe out of class when they leave, swipe them to pay for their lunch (rather than a seperate card or cash), and finally swipe them when they leave the building for the day. This makes it easy to make sure that only those who are supposed to be in the school are in the school. And it keeps track of where students are (in class) or aren't.

Armed Security - At these secure entrance points you would have a few highly-trained armed security people in place. They would check those students who beeped going through the metal detectors and always be on duty to take care of security risks. They could respond instantly to any violence or intruders in the school.

Eyes and Ears - How can administrators run schools effectively and safely if they are deaf and blind? That's what they're effectively trying to do today. Schools should have a barrage of cameras and microphones covering every inch of the building so they can always know what is going on at all times, and can instantly reference back to the video and audio from any camera at any time. Knowing where dangers are in a school and being able to verbally warn people to stay away from those areas can be quite effective at saving lives. Much more so than running around trying to figure out what is going on and only getting a partial understanding of the dangers at best.

While these concepts could be helpful in securing schools, I still feel that private companies would do a much better job of running the schools than the current public system. But, I don't think we'll ever find out for sure.