High School Lock Up

Ever been greeted at a public school with a metal detector and half a dozen security guards where parents are forbidden to enter?

Six high schools share space inside one building that I visited on a recent afternoon to drop off my son’s high school application. I’m having second thoughts about the school now.

When told I couldn’t get a receipt for the application, I asked if I could step inside to bring it to the school’s administrator. Nope. Only with an appointment. There was a flank of security officers standing near the chest-high security desk straight ahead. They were adamant and not too friendly. And even though it was 4:00, security wouldn’t escort me either.

I told the guard at the door that the school I was applying to doesn’t offer tours, and I was curious to see how the school "felt." How many schools in the building? Were they big? small? And most of all, what’s with the high level security that made me feel I was entering a juvenile detention facility?

When I asked a student at the High School Fair to tell me what she liked and didn’t like about the school, the didn’t like was obvious. Metal detectors and no cell phones allowed by anyone at any time in the building. I didn’t think much of the student’s complaints until I visited for myself.

Standing in the doorway I thought, this may be one of the only times I’lll get a sense of the environment where my kid could spend most of his waking time for the next three years. So I asked more questions, partly because I was disturbed by the sense of arbitrary power these uniformed guards demonstrated. The guard at the door showed some sympathy. He turned to me in a low voice and explained that the building was also headquarters for school safety, so they had to be on their toes.

But it all felt wrong. It felt like an environment with six disparate schools that treats everyone like a possible criminal. As my son put it, no wonder the 12th graders at the school he was applying to take all their classes somewhere else.

I had heard that a few of the schools in the building were the reason for the extra security. And if that’s true, wouldn’t that warrant more social workers and guidance counselors? Don’t we all know by now that adolescent violence acted out through mass shootings or fights with blades and guns (presumably what metal detectors are for) are a result of trauma experienced by the perpetrator? By untreated psychiatric or social/emotional scars? So why not hire more mental health professional for high-risk kids? Why turn a school building into an unwelcome fortress? Why create a place where every day the majority of visitors and students are treated like potential criminals, incapable of behaving like thoughtful human beings?

What a sad way to start the school day.