The Wake of School Security After Columbine
Contrary to the average man choosing to be free rather than safe, there are also events in American history where safety was valued over freedom.
One example can be seen in the aftermath of the tragic shootings at Columbine High School. On April 20th, 1999, Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado was the site of a catastrophic bloodbath. Two teenage gunmen brutally killed thirteen students, severely injuring many more through the use of firearms. Their original plan would have resulted in even more fatalities; they planned to detonate two bombs outside of the school, potentially killing hundreds. However, these bombs malfunctioned, so the gunmen decided to move their rampage to the inside of the school.
The effects of the Columbine High School shooting were relentless. The entire nation took up a heated debate over gun control and how to make American schools a safe place for children to gain their education. According to the Second Amendment, Americans have the right to carry firearms, but there has to be a line drawn. As a result, schools implemented zero tolerance policies. These are described as one-strike-and-you’re-out type of policies. Any student caught with drugs or a weapon at school, or any student that has threatened to do so would automatically receive a one-year suspension. President Clinton passed a law in 1994 that guaranteed this one-year suspension policy. Polls have shown that most people favored this policy because it got rid of troubled students.
In addition to the newly implemented zero tolerance policy, many schools also started to enforce other forms of security due to the response of communities to have higher measures of security. In 2009, a poll was taken of students who were between twelve and eighteen years of age. The results of the poll record that 68% of schools document having police officers and security guards; 70% of schools document using security cameras; and 11% of schools document the use of metal detectors before students enter the building.
In march of 2017, ABC News conducted a poll and reported that two-thirds of students feel that their school has enough safety precautions put in place to protect them. Since the Columbine shooting in 1999, the feeling of likelihood of a violent attack at one’s own school has decreased from 40% to 29%. These numbers show that the implemented procedures since Columbine have been successful in regard to the feelings of students.
In order to ensure the safety of the rest of their classmates, students will have to be willing to surrender their freedoms of privacy. Metal detectors are intrusive to one’s confidentiality because when students pass through them, they must surrender all objects that have the potential of setting the metal detector off. School security cameras give students the sense that someone is always watching them, which in a sense, this is true.
Although the students may have strong feelings against such precautions, they still choose not to oppose them. Students would rather have a sense of safety in school than to be the victim in a school shooting.
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