Caught in the middle: Can schools ensure security and positive student outcomes?

According to recent research, it's incredibly difficult for schools to physically enhance security without posing a threat to students' academic performance.

Now more than ever, student safety has become a top priority for schools as administrators learn and reflect on the tragedies caused by gun violence among K-12 campuses last year.

During the 2021-22 school year alone, there were 193 incidents of gunfire on pre-K-12 campuses, which resulted in 59 people dead and 138 wounded. As a result, several schools across the country have heightened security measures to ensure the safety of their students through a tactic called “hardening.”

Hardening is a method that involves implementing physical security measures, such as metal detectors, security cameras, etc.

In Ohio, the Columbus City Schools Board of Education recently voted to disperse 60 metal detectors to schools throughout the district. Clear backpacks are now required for students at South River public schools in New Jersey.

However, one school safety expert would tell you that schools should be prioritizing emergency preparedness and best practices over increasing physical security. Kenneth Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, told District Administration that clear backpack policies are mere “security theater” tactics in response to the increasing number of districts implementing them.

According to research published Tuesday in the Journal of Criminal Justice, increasing security measures also has detrimental effects on student achievement. Particularly, the authors found a link between heightened security and lower scores in math, decreased college attendance and increased suspensions.

The researchers call this correlation the “safety tax.” In other words, it’s the inevitable cost students pay for the actions their schools take to increase security. Students of color, for example, were four times more likely to attend schools with higher levels of surveillance, and they’re also more likely to face suspension.

“Educational outcomes are powerful social determinants of incarceration risk, high-risk health behaviors, and life-course health outcomes,” the paper reads.

Treating schools as if they’re prisons ultimately sets students up to fail, according to the study’s lead author Odis Johnson Jr.

“When schools feel like prisons, the impact isn’t localized to the students perceived as problematic—it has collateral consequences for kids irrespective of their behavior,” he said in a statement.


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School security measures, as outlined in the study, include metal detectors, random metal detector checks, closing campuses for lunch, random dog sniffs, contraband sweeps, drug testing, uniform requirements, dress codes, clear backpack policies, student ID requirements, faculty identification badge policies, and surveillance.

“We understand that surveillance is part of schools’ security and safety responsibilities but we also know that the primary mission of schools is to educate kids and we wanted to know if fortifying schools in this way related in any way to the primary mission of educating kids and sending them off to college,” Johnson said

The detailed results of the study:

  • Increased surveillance leads to higher suspension rates. Increasing detection also increases punishment, regardless of student demographics.
  • Schools with high levels of surveillance had “significantly” lower test scores.
  • Students who attended schools with high levels of surveillance were “significantly” less likely to go to college.
  • Black students were four times more likely to attend schools with high levels of surveillance, and they were more likely to be suspended.
Micah Ward
Micah Wardhttps://districtadministration.com
Micah Ward is a District Administration staff writer. He recently earned his master’s degree in Journalism at the University of Alabama. He spent his time during graduate school working on his master’s thesis. He’s also a self-taught guitarist who loves playing folk-style music.

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