For want of a gun, a bag was lost

[captainsblog]

Over the weekend, we got more than our share of alerts from the Robocall and Email Division of Emily's high school: on Friday, a student there, being disciplined in the assistant principal's office, was found with a gun in his backpack. They didn't name him, but the paper did the next day, revealing him to be (a) a him, (b) a 16-year-old, and (c) nobody Emily knew.

When Em got home last night, she reported that the biggest buzz among the students wasn't Who he was, or What was he thinking, but "Why no bag checks?"  School officials had reacted this way in the past following some much lower-scale tussling among students, and it seemed a wise precaution, especially with a 9/11 of bad memories and a 9/12 of wacked-out protesters still firmly in the rear-view mirror.

Yet, sadly, there's a mentality among many educators that prevents such preventive measures, because it "sends the wrong message."

So the proposed solution for making their school safer, at least according to early reports? Banning backpacks.

Imagine what fun this will be for a senior, who's not only taking calculus and physics and every other heavy-booked required course in the catalog, PLUS taking art coursework and having to shlep a portfolio all over a three-story school building. A school building which, by the way, is still under construction with cinder blocks all over the hallways.

However, in a concession to the needs of the fairer sex, girls will still be allowed to carry purses. Good thing girls don't carry guns, huh.

Comments

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* Ah, suburban schools...

I'm assuming that the real reason for not doing bag checks is that they can't afford to hire people to do it?

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

They probably can't afford to do it every day, but they have done it on a periodic basis in the past, which is really all they need to do in order to create a deterrence.

Unfortunately, there's a whole school (sorry) of thought which resists such efforts because they "turn our schools into prisons."

As opposed to turning them into morgues, I suppose.

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

I understand that school of thought, but, if it's necessary because of an obvious threat, then... *shrugs* Idealism vs pragmatism, round nine million, I guess.

[shinuhana.livejournal.com]

They banned backpacks for a while when I was in grade school (early 90's?). Back then, they used the bullsh!t excuse that backpacks are a fire hazard. As if stacks of books scattered all over the floor aren't?

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

Great. Your kid's school is run by dopes.