Sherburne-Earlville High School is vulnerable. So is every other school. In fact, we all are – and we always have been. We are all at the mercy of each other, and it is the ultimate test of our responsibility and civility. We could all inflict damage everywhere we went if we were inclined to. At the grocery store, at work, at a restaurant, at home, and at school. Laws and a mutual regard for human life are what generally keep us safe in these places, and we don’t have to constantly fear for our lives, despite the unspoken vulnerability.
As I walked through S-E , I was disturbed and ashamed of myself for exposing that vulnerability. I was disturbed because it was so easy to go from hall to hall, past room after room – past student after student – calculating the ease with which an individual(s) could cause untold damage. I was ashamed for even thinking that way, and for anybody that could consider and carry-out that kind of destruction.
I snuck into a school. I am not qualified to assess the level of security at a school, and when considering the unprecedented and random rash of school violence over the past ten years – I’m not certain anybody really is.
Unadilla Valley Central Schools Superintendent Rex Hurlburt said the need for heightened security measures is a sad commentary on today’s world, but is nevertheless a fact teachers, administrators and students have to deal with. “Schools were always a safe place,” said Hurlburt. “No one would ever have thought of doing something at a school because of the kids. That has certainly changed. That’s society today.”
“Society” gets overly and arbitrarily blamed for a lot of things, but in this case I don’t think the problem is overblown – I think some of the expectations are misplaced. Asking teachers, administrators and students to secure a school from the monsters outside is like expecting a police officer to teach 11th graders physics, while simultaneously trying to calm a hostage situation. It’s too easy to look at this problem as “It’s schools versus the rest of the world, and how will they handle it?” Especially when the threat will most likely be coming from within.
The next question is, how much control do schools have over their own security? Aside from the two adult gunmen, who had no apparent connections to the schools they attacked earlier this year in Pennsylvania and Colorado, most of the school shootings since 1996 have been acted out by students. Some say the answer is more locks, cameras, buzzers and metal detectors. Is locking people out going to fix the real problem? If the problem is that kids feel alienated and are quicker to resort to violence, or if bullying has gotten so bad that violence is their only answer, doesn’t it seem like any safety plans have to be weighted more toward pro-actively working with students on the inside?
Many local school administrators and teachers have said they work from classroom to classroom keeping track of behaviors and fostering open environments for student to discuss their problems. Officials have also affrimed that school psychologists, social workers, and counselors have become much more prevalent, and play a much larger role in day-to-day school functions
But what can schools do to protect their students if they not only need to have a deeper awareness of the problems within their population, but also have to protect that population from evil forces outside their walls? They need help from the rest of us.
Many of the schools have implemented safety teams made up of faculty, law enforcement officers, parents, and community members, and hopefully their scope can, and will, reach beyond just gauging accessibility.
I’m in no position to lecture educators, parents, or community members about how to fix the problems of their schools and the world. Our experiment only tested one facet of school security, but I hope that if anything, it shows that school safety is more than a sensationalized “break in,” and that it involves work from all different angles. Comfort zones shouldn’t be found in outside security measures. And I think that is something our local schools do understand.