Why haven’t they already put them in? Is it true that they are not following all advice from the UP police? If true, why not?

I hope to God they don’t install metal detectors and will onject vehemently to installing them. I would like to know exactly what law enformcement recommends in that regard. I’ve heard that there is a minority of parents at HPHS who want them and are making threats that if the school doesn’t install metal detectors, they are going to the national media with stories about HP’s negligence in the matter. That sounds like bullying to me.

Ok, I’ll bite. Why would you vehemently object to metal detectors? They send the wrong message? Violence couldn’t happen here? Given what I’ve seen and heard lately about our community and the actions of some of our children (and parents), what makes us think that our glorious little bubble is any different from the rest of the world? Yes, there are great people here, but do we really believe an extra layer of security is not warranted given our school was recently in lockdown?

I have seen a threat text(a screen shot from the text sent on 3/20) and it was seriously creepy and extremely specific. I don’t know why the school thinks that walk-thru metal detectors “send the wrong image”, as was stated in an email to parents…as one mom just stated to me, maybe that would feel a bit too “ghetto”(a kid’s term, not the mom’s)for our district? As the article states, a town meeting, open to all parents, would go a long way towards ending speculation and filling in the information gaps.

“You can never be too safe”.

I guess, but where does it end?
It would be safer to have guards at every entrance
It would be safer to lock all of the doors
It would be safer to have guards roaming the halls
It would be safer to have random locker checks
It would be safer to have random pat downs.

What are the statistics? What are the odds of something happening? Would a metal detector have stopped Columbine, Newtown, etc.? Rather than whispers and scare tactics and one mans opinion (just because he is chief of police of UP doesn’t mean he’s right), why not an informed discussion, and vote?

Where does it end? It either ends with a bunch of students getting shot, or it ends with a few simple pragmatic measures being taken to make the first ending a lot less likely. Schools are high value soft targets for psychopaths. I can’t believe school districts are not getting sued left and right over the total lack of security they provide for the kids that we entrust them with. Lock the dang doors, check for weapons, hire a security guard.

http://www.psychlawjournal.com/2012/12/school-shootings-what-are-odds.html

Here are some facts. To be clear, I’m neither for or against metal detectors. I’d be open to hearing some facts on the efficacy of metal detectors, but so far, the line of reasoning for them seems to be “what can it hurt?”, and, a box of bullets woulnd’t have been found.

@HPHS mammy: While I agree with you that underage drinking and the other issues you mentioned are urgent matters that our kids are dealing with on a daily basis, I disagree with your comment that “Pamela Kripke is a loose cannon and the HuffPo a dubious media source.” Seriously? HuffPo gets an average of 36-50 million unique visitors per month and Ms. Kripke wasn’t posting a news story, but an editorial on what’s happening at HPHS with the security issues, based on her personal conversations with Chief Adams and her experience as an HPHS parent. I don’t think it’s fair to call another district parent a “loose cannon” simply because she is an accomplished writer who published her opinion, especially when she used her name and you’re not willing to. Just something to think about.

XT is right, Metal detectors wouldn’t have picked up the ammunition left behind in the HPHS bathroom. Metal detectors work by inducing a magnetic field in ferrous metals, and then sensing the resulting field. Ammunition are composed of: copper, lead, brass, smokeless gunpowder and a primer which does have some ferrous metal but its minimal. The primers only weigh a few grams, and only about 1/2 of its mass is metal. Medal detectors aren’t going to catch non matallic weaponary like Carbon Fiber Knives for example, yes, they can be made and are just as sharp as regular cutlery. Personally, I think people need to lay of the cable news which is know for sensationalizing horrific events and take a break from dobious websites. All this talk of metal detectors has me thinking about buying one and finding me a beach.

More facts:

“School shootings have declined dramatically over the past few decades, even as attacks such as those at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 and Scotland’s Dunblane Primary School in 1996 have loomed large in our imaginations. The early 1990s were among the worst years for school killings, as gang-related incidents “spilled over into schools,” Fox said.

After reaching a high of 63 deaths in the 2006-2007 school year, the number of people killed in “school-associated” incidents dropped to 33 in 2009-2010 – the lowest in two decades, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

While a few dozen children are killed each year in school, statistically speaking it remains the safest place a child will likely ever be, with the lowest chance of being killed. “When you consider the fact that there are over 50 million schoolchildren in America, the chances are over 1 in 2 million, not a high probability,” Fox said. “And most cases that do occur are in high schools and less so in middle schools – and hardly ever in elementary schools.”

Such shootings make up only a “small fraction” of incidents, said Dewey Cornell, director of the University of Virginia’s Youth Violence Project.

“We must be careful not to let the enormity of this tragedy affect our perception of the safety of our schools,” Cornell said. “Violence is far more common outside of schools than in schools.”

Source: Article from Tampa News Station WTSP

@Hp – you condescending little twit. The more prevalent, imminent and real risk to high school students everywhere is drinking, depression, cutting, cheating, promiscuity,and, with kids like you, a potentially fatal case of entitlement.

Of course an HP student finds their way to the blog to try and make a laughable dig at HP parents because teenagers are always so much smarter than adults.

A metal detector primarily exists for the sole purpose of convincing you that you are being protected from “someone else” and that there is “someone else” that you need protection from. I doubt many people feel safe when they walk through security at an airport, primarily because the indicated purpose of a security checkpoint is because enemies unknown are trying to kill them.

The world around here is already a pretty safe place to be and generally trends towards safer year over year. I, personally, do not see a need to place subtle messages at school entrances that the world is a place to be feared. (Not just “for the children”- adults respond the same way, emotionally.) So, yes, there is such as thing as too much security.

@HPHS Mammy are you saying that drinking, depression, cutting, cheating, promiscuity and entitlement are more prevalent risks to HP students then a bomb in the school or a shooting? Because I would adamantly disagree. I also don’t think that you are considering the emotional toll that these events have had on the students of HP. Metal detectors would go a long way in reinforcing a sense of safety at our school. Also, it seems to me that you’re argument against detectors is in reality the best one for them. If you’re worried about drunk depressed teens roaming the hallways of HP I would think that you would be all for metal detectors and any other measures that can be taken to protect HP students.

@Hp, Be as perplexed as you want; I didn’t bring up any of the other topics you mention, just made a comment about how students love to jump on the blog and fire off very well thought out and original digs (“lunch-bunch moms”) at community members/parents who are on the blog discussing community issues. That said, I’ll answer for HPHS mammy; the metal detectors are the subject of this thread, they are being discussed in relation to safety of students…not a real big jump to bring up other safety related items.

Mammy, I was agreeing with your assessment that those things are more dangerous than mass shootings, individual deaths, and drinking/ drugs.

After looking at the facts, I now do not believe that metal detectors are a solution, because frankly, they try to solve a problem that is statistically highly improbable. If we were in an inner city, and fighting knives and guns being in school, fighting, etc, I might feel differently.

But, there is no need in my mind to even bring the other issues into the discussion; I came to my opinion not based on the relative rank of school shootings on the spectrum, but rather the absolute lack of threat. Whether we spend money on education on the other issues is an entirely different (though useful) discussion.