<p>Despite the reputation of some of the Seattle schools and their neighborhoods, its interesting that the two deaths on school grounds in the last 10 years in Seattle, both took place in the same " middleclass- white bread" neighborhood.</p>
<p>( I put it in parentheses, because although the area for years was dominated by Scandinavian immigrants working in the fishing industry, it is much more diverse, especially as many of the current workers aren’t Norwegian or Finnish, but Mexican)</p>
<p>I would like to think my daughters school is safe, just as every parent would, but I also know that weapons are easy to come by & easier to use.</p>
<p>I guess the problem with the metal detectors is cost and inconvenience. The detectors would have to be purchased ($$$), they’d have to be staffed by security personnel ($$$$), it’d likely limit entrance points, and it’d cause a backup for people entering the school (ala the airport). It also wouldn’t stop a determined kid who could probably just throw a gun over the fence by the field and retrieve it after they enter school. Fortunately, although these incidents are tragic, they’re also relatively rare given the thousands of schools and millions of students attending every day.</p>
<p>A determined individual can get around a metal detector – I can think of several real world examples. One was the assassination of the San Francisco mayor George Moscone & Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978 – there were metal detectors at the main entrances to City Hall then, but the shooter (another member of the Board of Supervisors), came in via a basement window to avoid the metal detectors. It would be easy enough for a kid to come in through an open window at school – easier still if he’s got a partner who opens the window for him. </p>
<p>Metal detectors probably are effective at cutting down on the type of violence that comes when kids routinely carry knives or other weapons, such as an inner city school where students are involved in gangs. It won’t keep the kids from fighting or killing each other outside of the school – and a determined kid will still get the weapon in – but at least it helps address a situation where every kid in the place is carrying some sort of weapon and fights break out at random. Note that I said “cutting down” … not totally “preventing”. There will still be weapons that make it past the barrier, for one reason or another…</p>
<p>After Columbine our high school assessed what they could do. With something like 43 doors and ground floor windows they concluded that metal detectors would be a waste of money.</p>