I was very disappointed today that the district has chosen to put metal detectors in our high schools.
This is a knee jerk decision which doesn't address the real problem mental health and a lack of discipline, and which quite frankly I don't believe will keep our schools safer.
From WJCT,
This is a knee jerk decision which doesn't address the real problem mental health and a lack of discipline, and which quite frankly I don't believe will keep our schools safer.
From WJCT,
Duval County public high schools will probably have walk-through metal detectors for checking students for weapons later this school year, according to the district's police director Micheal Edwards at a school board workshop Tuesday.
The recommendation was made after security risk assessments of district schools, including principal feedback identifying their schools’ most vulnerable areas.
More cameras with better resolution and walk-through metal detectors in high schools were determined to be most needed.
“Our goal is to quadruple the amount [of cameras schools] have,” Superintendent Diana Greene said. “The average school only has about 16 cameras. Our high school campuses have thousands of square footage.”
State lawmakers passed school safety legislation after February’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. It dedicates $99 million to hardening districts’ schools. Duval is planning to apply for some of the state funding to get the cameras, metal detectors and other improvements.
Everyone wants to keep our children safe but I don't believe we want our schools turned into prisons either. Metal detectors don't do anything to address our mental health problem, nor do they address poverty or hopelessness in our schools.
More, better cameras won't do any good if students wear hats and hoodies. No one's gonna tell 1000 students 800 times a day to remove them. The board should disallow them all together in next years dress code. It could say hats and hoodies can not be brought to school except knit caps when the temperature drops below 45 degrees. Cameras are useless other wise. Mrs. Green just wants to spend her free money on some thing, any thing without putting any thought in to it.
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