Let's Make It Official
Here's where school security is going:
Each morning, the 16,000 students in the Spring Independent School District in suburban Houston swipe their ID tags as they climb onto the school bus. A radio frequency tag tracks them, as it does when they arrive at school and as they leave the building.
Nearly 1,000 cameras watch them all day. Every visitor — parents, volunteers, the guy who fills the Coke machine — must surrender his or her driver's license to a secretary who checks it against a national database of sex offenders. This fall, nearly one in three schools literally trap visitors inside a "secure vestibule," a bulletproof glass room, until they're checked out.
Welcome to the brave new world of school security. In an era when deadly school shootings seem to happen like clockwork [Really? What school is scheduled for today? Because isn't the predictability the essence of being "like clockwork"? - Ed.], schools are hardening up, trying unconventional means to deter violence and keep track of students and adults.
Up next:
- classrooms locked down from a central guard station, and opened only to allow passing between classes.
- While passing between classes, students will be searched for weapons, and then secured to the next student in line via Teachers' Union-approved "Freedom Shackles" to prevent kidnapping and molestation, and walked to the next class
- Student "Free time" will take place in a fenced "yard" on the top of the building, surrounded by barbed wire to prevent abuse, shootings and kidnappings
- Finally, to prevent child abuse in the home (statistically the most dangerous place for children to be or to go to or from), students will live in their individual "classrooms" 23/7 (with an hour a day in the exercise yard noted above)
It's a brave new world!
Posted by Mitch at
October 11, 2006 07:45 AM
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Probably just trying to keep their kids safe from Republican congressmen.
Posted by: angryclown at October 11, 2006 08:35 AMOr their Democratic congressmen who, you know, have actually *had8 sex with minor pages.
Posted by: Loren at October 11, 2006 09:02 AMReason #943 why we home educate.
Posted by: Night Writer at October 11, 2006 09:07 AMSo, you're telling me that "educators" these days are creating institutions that aren't much different than minimum security prisons? From security, to structured times, to lack of trust and respect the situation in a modern public school is nowhere near what it used to be, and that's even in the suburbs!
And that the public is disappointed with the quality of public school output given how things are run internally?
I'm shocked, I tell you!
Ya know, I'm just glad there's an opt-out ability and that we use it.
Posted by: nerdbert at October 11, 2006 09:23 AMReason #939: Public schools don't give language credit for speaking in tongues.
Reason #940: Less math, more JESUS!
Reason #941: In America, even if you're a dumbass you can grow up to be president.
Reason #942: We don't cotton to no fancy book larnin' nohow!
Posted by: angryclown at October 11, 2006 09:30 AM"Reason #941: In America, even if you're a dumbass you can grow up to be president."
Angryclown '08!!
Posted by: Ryan at October 11, 2006 09:49 AMWell, I for one hope that it is unconstitutional for angryclown to run for president due to his age, for his logic does not give me much hope that he is older than 35. If I'm wrong, well...one more strike against the public education system.
Posted by: Sixth Sense at October 11, 2006 12:11 PM"Student "Free time" will take place in a fenced "yard" on the top of the building, surrounded by barbed wire to prevent abuse, shootings and kidnappings"
Not quite right. Try "Student "free time" will be eliminated altogether." From the WSJ: "According to the U.S. Department of Education, 21% to 30% of children in grades one to six get 15 minutes or less of recess a day."
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB116044203663787613.html
I'm 41 years old, and I need way more than 15 minutes of recess a work day to have any semblance of sanity at all.
matt in mac-groveland
Posted by: fasolamatt at October 11, 2006 12:14 PM#944: Speaking in tongues is more intelligible than regurgitating liberal talking points for extra credit.
#945: Math proves there is order in the universe: let's find out how it got there.
#946: You can have all kinds of fancy book larnin' and still be incredibly ignorant.
#947: You won't find angryclown hanging by his underwear from a hook in his locker (tempting as it may be).
Posted by: Night Writer at October 11, 2006 07:24 PMSince it's already been established that high school students have few rights, and they all think school is a prison anyway, why not just take things to a conclusion?
Posted by: DiscordianStooge at October 11, 2006 08:56 PMWhy is angryfrown anti-gay? Just because one gay man preys upon vulnerable youths does NOT mean that all gay men are sexual predators.
Posted by: Spectator at October 11, 2006 08:56 PM