Can Security Measures Really Stop School Shootings

The Parkland school massacre has led to stringent security measures. Lawmakers in Kentucky has called for security measures and started a “target-hardening” approach. The approach wants school staff to be armed. It also asks schools to include metal detectors, training programs, lock-down policies and more surveillance cameras.

However, some of these measures do not seem sensible. The surveillance cameras were not able to stop the Sandy Hook incident. Researchers believe that increasing these measures will do little to stop these incidents. To stop these incidents, it is important to understand the experience that students go through in American schooling systems and what the word school means to them.

The target-hardening approach may even make things worse. It may lead to students experiencing more violence rather than felling secure. By increasing the security measure, or installing metal detectors, surveillance cameras may scare students into believing that violence may occur.

The approach may also change the way teachers and students see one another. If teachers think that students may be a threat, then it would affect the way they educate them. Teachers may start to think of them as a threat that needs to be assessed and not as individuals that need to be nourished or cultivated into future leaders.