Metal Detectors: Justifying School Safety

Essay by Di8416High School, 12th grade April 2003

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Metal Detectors: Justifying School Safety

How much is your child's safety worth? Are you willing to put a price tag on your child's life? Many schools are putting a price tag, but fortunately several are not. A shocking one in ten students has carried a weapon to school in New York. Statistics like this cannot be music to the ears of parents. You have to wonder what schools are doing about this awful matter. A notion that has been around, yet a new idea is helping pave the future on student safety in schools. It is metal detectors. This new idea has caused controversy all over the world. Schools around the United States have turned to metal detectors for their solution. I feel that metal detectors are a small price to pay when this matter concerns children. Metal detectors are helpful and expensive. However, most schools are able to afford them, and they do not exploit students' rights.

Metal detectors ensure school safety quickly and effectively. They help enforce a practice that is seen in many areas, including airports and courthouses. Many may argue that they consume too much time and require specially trained professionals. On the contrary, several schools have taken the same measures that are taken when conducting a poll. Polls only use a small percent of the population for the actual questions, but it still represents the entire population. Countless cities, including New York, have "...set a predetermined method of scanning which allows them to scan every second or third student instead of the entire student body" (McDermott 2). This measure is closely monitored, and it has proven to be successful. Some schools have even made things move quicker by having the teachers enter through a different entrance, which also includes metal detectors. Metal detectors in...