High Security Schools

We also had a railway line running across one side of the grounds, which meant that was the only side with a decent fence to it.

... This all sounds incredibly fucked-up.

Schools in Britain (unless they're in South London, in which case, everyone suffers death by gunshot wound) don't have bank-level security. Heck, I live about 1 km from one of the toughest areas in the city, and the most security the schools have is dialling 112 or 999.

Like I said, the thing with putting a fence in front of the car park entrance was a special case. Other than that the only security was cameras dotted around the grounds which may or may not have been working.

You'd think my old High School would've had armed guards considering,..

A) Right at the turn of the millennium,the administrative building was burned down by arsonists

B) The next five years had principal after principal say Screw This, I'm Outta Here

C) In my time there,fights were rampant,...and the other half consisted of the fire alarm getting pulled 3 times daily,the whole week for two months straight

D) Two instances of guns getting discharged on campus

E) Even with some security,you could escape from just about anywhere

Middle School wasn't that way though because of being an inverse of E,escaping was near impossible

Same in my school. Although, nobody notices them anyway.

And in case anyone thought I was kidding about the dead body...

I think my high school had a working security camera...

Edit: Meaning a sigle one at the entrance.

edited 22nd Aug '12 5:26:34 PM by Qeise

We had no fence, no cops or security, no cameras, no metal detectors and if you were a senior classmen (junior or senior years) you could come and go as you pleased - and it wasn't difficult for a junior classmen to sneak off, either.

Somehow, we did okay.

My high school had neither camera nor metal detector nor fence nor security guards.

We had teachers who stood near the main entrances. Once every few years, the police would show up with the drug-sniffing dogs.

I think we had a random wall-locker search once a year, and might have forgotten to do it once.

Wow. I may have grown up in a pretty chill place, but I never thought it could be this bad anywhere else.

The 'security' around my high-school consisted of a stern look by the concierge. And apart from a single burglary where nothing particularly valuable was stolen (some old computers they were planning on replacing anyway) nothing ever happened.

I don't envy you guys.

My school has cameras everywhere, that they will check if you get in trouble. They don't have somebody sitting there staring at it, but if you get accused of something they will go to the tape and find you. It's designed to stop people from selling drugs in the hallway or stealing from the vending machines, but so far, all they've used it for is people having sex in the girls bathroom, and people still sell drugs in the hallway. We also have a police officer in the school, though all he does is arrest people who got into fights or got caught with drugs. They used to bring the police dogs in to smell for illegal things, but they haven't done that in a while. Some schools in the area have metal detectors, usually the ones in bad areas.

We also have an "intruder drill", where we're supposed to go in the corner if an intruder comes, the idea being that they wouldn't be able to see us from the little window in the door. It's suppoed to have something to do with Columbine as well, though several people have pointed out that if we had a Columbine incident happen, the person would already be in the school, and they would know the intruder drill.

But if you think my school is bad, you should go to a school in New York. It was like they had the TSA working for them.

edited 22nd Aug '12 2:48:56 PM by wuggles

We had cameras, but they were poorly positioned, so they didn't really do anything.

Did you go to my high school? Because all that sounds awfully familiar. Especially the arson.

All they had for security though were fences that closed when classes were in session and auto-locks on some of the rooms with computers with them. Personally I just climbed the fences and memorized the password for the door locks though (by looking over a teacher's shoulder).

My high school had a single security guard type of person. That was it. And it was completely fine.

Wow, lots of posts and a lot of difference between the level of security between schools it seems.

Why is that? Some schools are built like forts and others like a cardboard box in terms of security.

You'd think there would be a standard template for schools by now.

Some areas (countries, cities, school districts... take your pick) are safer than others.

And some are more paranoid than others.

I like to think this is the biggest part of the problem. If you treat people like criminals, they will act like criminals.

Very much depends on location and how reactive the school district is.

At my school, for my four year, we had a relatively safe time for the first three. Maybe some fights in the halls during passing periods or something, or some stolen items, but nothing I'd really consider anything beyond your average high school experience. The worst thing that happened was my senior year, when a girl killed herself in the bathroom with a gun. It was kinda scary for awhile, but it died down as just a very, very unfortunate event that pumped-up security measures wouldn't have really fixed. (At the end of the day, the girl would have killed herself somewhere, you can't blame the school too much for being the location.)

I think the most the school ever did was get a little more strict on who comes-and-goes, as well as locking some side entrances. They intended on putting in metal detectors, but couldn't afford it, and metal detectors tend to increase crime. Which is a big deal. Kids usually don't bring guns or knives to them on campus, but when they're told not to do it, they suddenly take it as a double-dog-dare and try to get past security "just for fucks sake."

Which eventually leads to some stupid kids having weapons on them for stupid reasons and realizing they can stupidly hurt people.

That's a big issue in general. Adolescents see rules as "dares" quite often, and break them just to show off to society how they could do it. It's really around when I got into college that I heard people finally getting pissed at others for doing stupid shit just because they could, i.e. breaking and vandalizing property.

In effect; without rules, kids run wild.

With rules, kids run wilder.

Therefore, we must take the lesser of two evils. HAVE NO RULES.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerhill_School

Nuff said on the no rules thing.

I jammed up the doors more then once because they always reminded us to keep the doors locked. Upon reflection it was very petty and silly but gorramit, they said we couldn't so we did!

Has NYC schools changed after I graduated high school? As far as I can remember, security in my schools didn't drastically increase after Columbine. We had the usual guard at the front desk plus extras if fights broke out. Although, at the end of my high school years, the school forced students to swipe their ID cards in a scanner at the start of the day, but I thought that was quite pointless.

I take it nobody bothered to tell you why... or say why it'd be a bad idea for you, personally, to do it?

Now, I did have some issues with the way detention was handled in South Africa (when I was at school), but there's nothing quite like a jumbo-sized pile of onions to be skinned and cut to prevent you doing silly stuff. Or the sanding of desks (manual, no sander). Or the drains (rubber gloves: have at it). Or the rubbish pick-up on the grounds (ditto with the gloves)... there was choice!

Yup... I have authority issues: I tend to listen to it. <shrugs> Wonder why?

Strangely enough... the most any school I ever went to had as security had were thorny hedges and/or chain-linked fences, the odd security camera (mainly for over-night) as well as alarms and patrols (again, at night). Oh... and the introduction of dogs in one (after hours) as I was leaving. Unsure how wise that measure would be, to be honest. <shrugs>

edited 2nd Sep '12 7:22:53 AM by Euodiachloris