A recent statement released by Milwaukee Public Schools regarding why they have chosen to implement metal detectors and enforce daily scans read as follows: “Recent events have reminded us that public spaces and buildings are not immune from the threat of violence. It is our goal to have a daily scan at the beginning of the day, not unlike what fans experience when attending a major sporting event.” Implementing daily scans is a policy that all Milwaukee Public Schools must now follow.
While this policy is nothing new to high schools like South Division and Vincent, which have had metal detectors for years, the process is new for other high schools such as Rufus King International School and Riverside University High School, where students only experienced one to three random security checks in previous years. Thankfully, students aren’t bowing down to this unjust policy or accepting it as their new normal. Instead it has met heavy resistance, specifically from students attending Riverside, who staged protests and started a petition in efforts to get the metal detectors removed from their school.
When asked about their opinion on the safety policy now enforced at schools in the MPS system, alumni responded in a variety of ways. Brianna Johnson said, “They’re really unnecessary.” Mollyjo Bautch reacted differently, saying, “I understand why they have them. They should just decrease the scans from daily to a more reasonable amount of times during the school year.” Cassandra Coulson was more adamant, arguing that, “They are treating young scholars like criminals. The school to prison pipeline must be stopped. Riverside students’ reaction shows that they are capable of great things. MPS should be encouraging them, not criminalizing them.”
The reaction from parents was similarly mixed. While some parents may feel a sense of security knowing that their child goes to a school with metal detectors, others may be discouraged from sending their child to a public school, assuming that the school must have a history of violence. For students and parents alike, metal detectors send the message that the school is not a generally safe place and that measures had to be taken to enhance the security. As someone who graduated from Riverside in 2012, I know this is not the case. For MPS schools like the one I attended, the environment was safe without metal detectors. Therefore, metal detector scans every morning only prove to be an unnecessary annoyance.
Riverside students have also brought up the issue that they are scholars, not suspects. The daily scans are seen as a personal attack, incriminating students who are not criminals. At the same time, MPS continues to remind the students that the daily scans are only there to ensure safety.
One of the questions raised is whether or not the daily scans are a precaution or a punishment for students and teachers who already trust that their school is a safe place. During the time I attended public school in Milwaukee, two scans happened a year. The process has made students late to class. It was intimidating to have all of your belongings searched and being patted down like you were guilty of a crime you didn’t commit. However, I had no problem dealing with it because I felt it was only ensuring safety.
Now that the scans are implemented daily, they are much more excessive and no longer seem like a safety precaution, but a punishment. If this process and feeling of incrimination is hard to imagine from a student’s perspective, consider it from a driver’s perspective. Imagine a police officer pulling you over every day and going through the protocol “license and registration please” or “drug test” to ensure you weren’t likely to cause a drunk driving accident. How many people who consider daily scans a reasonable precaution for school safety would also consider this measure a reasonable precaution for driving safety?
The scans have been put in place to fix what hasn’t been broken. While school shootings have been getting a lot of attention on a national scale, they are not a problem in Wisconsin. Placing mistrust in students all over Wisconsin as a reaction to the unfortunate events that have taken place in schools elsewhere is unreasonable and unfair. Better ways exist to ensure the safety of students, and they don’t involve patting them down like criminals. It starts with protecting them against bullying and educating them on how to react when violent threats do occur. Also, digging deeper into the core causes of gun violence is what MPS and the country as a whole should be focused on. Getting rid of the daily scans and tackling those issues will prove much more helpful to both the education and the safety of Wisconsin students.
Pamanisha Gross ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in journalism and communication arts.
