Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl in Tampa
Well, you must admit that designating schools as "gun free zones" has not gotten the job done.
Your solution would be..........?
Simple hardening would not be as expensive as you contemplate. It could be simply locking all exterior doors of the school building, with alarm devices on the doors and closed circuit television on the doors. CCTV is commonplace in schools now. The doors already have locks on them.
The responsibility for hardening each school lies with the local school district. In Hillsborough County (Tampa) our high schools have had on duty law enforcement officers (School Resource Deputies) for decades. The Sheriff's Office is in the process of expanding this program to include middle and elementary schools with contracted security officers who have Florida certification as Law Enforcement Officers.
Like it or not, this is the future of school security. We will get accustomed to it, just as we got accustomed to long lines and taking off our shoes at airport security checkpoints.
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The high school where I served as vice principal had three buildings on one campus to which students would traverse for various classes throughout the day. Each multi-floored building had several entry/exit points with eight class periods daily. During lunch breaks, students were allowed to leave the cafeteria and go out to the central courtyard which eased the crowding in the lunchroom and decreased the occurrence of problematic behavioral issues. I'm pretty sure that other schools have a similar setup making your proposal quite difficult to enact.