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ON THE MARK... School Security
Commentary
By Mark Hallburn
Publisher
PutnamLIVE.com

We dodged a bullet at Hurricane High School. Not literally, but figuratively.

On the day a lunatic loser
killed Emily Keyes, a high
school girl in Colorado, the
same week a student killed
his principal, John Klang, in
Wisconsin, here in Putnam
County, our headline only
read "Student Brings Pellet
Gun To Hurricane High
School."

No shot was fired. No one was injured. No one was killed.

We dodged a bullet. We were very fortunate.

Thank God!

Others haven’t been so fortunate. We all know about Columbine. Some of us remember Paducah. Some remember Stockton. Others remember Santana and Granite Hills (where I substitute taught before moving to Putnam County) And now we can add the schools in Colorado and Wisconsin to the tragedies where the halls of learning turned to halls of horror.

It’s been six years since Columbine became a household name-for tragic reasons. Six years since a dozen students and a teacher were gunned down. Six years in which we should have made schools secure. And six years where administrations have failed, while keeping their heads stuck in the sand chanting "It won’t happen here."

But it almost happened at Hurricane High School. And now, more than ever, we need to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.

Our students, teachers, and staff need a secure environment where they don’t have to learn and work with the fear of someone bringing a gun to campus and shooting and killing everyone in sight.

I've worked in schools for more than 15 years. As a reporter, I've been on most of the Putnam County campuses, and on most of those campuses, security is a joke-if it exists at all.

In fact, the day after the Stockton shooting, I was called to substitute teach social studies at Whittier High School (which you remember from the Back to the Future movies), walked onto campus, and without giving my name or ID, told a secretary (that I had never met) that I was there to substitute teach social studies. Without looking up, she handed me a key, lesson plans, and told me a room number. Without anyone knowing who I was, I had access to a room full of students-all day long.

That was long before Columbine, and things haven’t improved.

With the exception of Stonewall Jackson Middle School, (where you are buzzed in by a secretary-but don't have to show ID) anyone can walk into a school building and have access to everyone inside.

Sure, we have been required to sign in at the office-but who enforces this? And there are security cameras. (The cops have video and stills of the Columbine murders-one of which is shown above) But cameras and recorders only capture evidence-they don’t stop crimes. What we don’t have is metal detectors and screening systems.

And we should.

Don’t give me the lame, tired rhetoric of making students feel like criminals. Don’t tell me students and teachers consider this an invasion of privacy. Don’t tell me that schools will end up with a fortress attitude. These things are obvious.

What’s more obvious is that we don’t live in the Fantasyland of Mayberry RFD and Andy Griffith-where crime was virtually non-existent.

Most students are great kids. I love to take a day or so each month and substitute teach. Students are intelligent, fun, inspiring, and give us hope that our world will turn out right despite the many mistakes of us adults.

But a few students are deeply troubled. Deeply troubled. Many come from broken homes. Many have screwed-up parents-if they even have two parents. Some have been beaten. Some do drugs. Some need intervention. And overworked teachers, administrators and support staff do not have the time and resources to save these kids. And, tragically, some of them snap. Or in the case of Colorado recently, they come back as adults and snap.

Whether you work in the schools, love students, or can barely tolerate teenagers, one thing is certain: All of our students, staff, and administrators are precious people. They must be protected. Having seminars or a few cameras is lame lip service to a real problem.

We need metal detectors on every campus everywhere. We need ID cards for all students and staff. We need locked entrances that only students and staff know how to open-with a pass card or a code. And we need them now.

Trust me. I don't like this at all. I don't want to have to show an ID to cover a story about a student earning an award. I won't want to have to show an ID to teach a journalism class. I don't want to see our schools look like airport terminals with cops checking book bags. But I also don't want any more students, teachers, principals or staff members murdered.

Losing our innocence and tolerating tough school security isn't fun. But I'd much rather have secure campuses than write another story about a lunatic shooting up a school and killing a student or teacher. And you'd much rather not read another school shooting story.

We've had enough bloodshed. I don't want Putnam County to become the next tragic school-shooting story. We need to protect our students, teachers, administrators and staff. We need to quit fantasizing that "It can't happen here."