Making schools safer — wisely
Like all school systems across the United States, the Santa Fe Public Schools community is reeling right now. As parents, staff, teachers and students have watched shootings unfold at other districts, there is heightened tension and more worry about whether students are safe here. For the Santa Fe Board of Education and Superintendent Veronica García, deciding what to do is complex. It’s clear more needs to be done — for reassurance, if nothing else — but deciding the right steps is difficult. We are relieved that Superintendent García and the Board of Education aren’t falling for simplistic solutions — no, arming teachers is not the answer. Unlike the president, we are rejecting that idea in Santa Fe. Also not up for discussion is the bad idea of enlisting a force of retired military or ex-cops as volunteer patrols on school grounds.
However, García is saying that the district will consider whether armed officers on campuses would increase security. While that is not a solution we particularly favor, for a number of reasons, we believe school officials have a duty to explore all sensible options. Our objection to armed guards is simply that between the real threat of an active shooter — still a rare occurrence — is the everyday reality of life in a school. With an officer and a gun, there is always potential for accidents or for an upset student to steal a weapon or even for an officer to perceive a threat and shoot in error.
There are other questions, too, about just what kind of guards would be brought in. Would these resource officers be trained police officers or sheriff ’s deputies, working for the city or county but assigned to schools? Some are suggesting hiring recently retired police officers; they, at least, would be better equipped to act under pressure. Would guards be placed at all schools? Can an armed officer do much good on a campus like Santa Fe High, with its many buildings and acreage, or even at Capital High, with several entrances and a lot of building to walk? Even in the most recent school shooting in Florida, having an armed guard did nothing to stop the carnage. The armed deputy stayed outside while 17 people died.
Always, of course, is the question of how to pay for hiring the guards. If Santa Fe officials decided an armed guard would make students safer, they would need to pay top dollar for someone properly trained and certified. Perhaps some sort of cost-sharing with the city and county could make actual police personnel available. However this is determined, adding guards is a costly solution. And personnel costs, unlike improvements to buildings, recur every year.
More to our liking are discussions García is having with the community about more structural ways of improving campus safety. We commend the superintendent for reaching out to the community proactively; some 80 people attended a public safety forum last week. Parents are concerned, and they are right to be. Public discussions will help ease concern and also find smart solutions.
Suggestions at the meeting included conducting age-appropriate active-shooter drills for students, similar to what teachers do; ways to make Santa Fe High less open; and limiting parents’ access to schools during drop-off and pickup times to make it harder for intruders to break through.
At the meeting, some parents were interested in the schools installing metal detectors; others thought they would make schools feel too prison-like. (We’re more concerned that it would be money wasted, because the logistics of placing and using detectors would make getting students in too cumbersome.) We also would like to hear more about how individual schools are reviewing security procedures, locking exterior doors and otherwise limiting access to both school grounds and buildings. After all, if the shooter can’t get in, everyone is safer.
Finding ways to better pay school counselors, a first line of defense for troubled students, also is a solution that would address the root causes of violence; angry young people, boys in particular, grow up to be angry adults who lash out. Part of making a community more secure has to be initiating efforts to help those children before they become violent. A statewide investment in more counseling resources in our schools would be a smart initiative for the next governor. Find the money.
We appreciate that the Santa Fe Police Department is initiating a “School Safety Net” program to provide more officers at schools across the district, starting immediately. By practicing community policing, the department hopes its officers will become trusted sights, the people to whom students take reports of suspicious behavior or threats. This is a welcome move.
Students off to school in the morning should not have to worry about whether they will be coming home again. With money and resources scarce, the community must discuss with care about how best to protect its most precious resource — our children. Think this through. Debate options widely. Look at what other districts are doing. Most of all, make sure solutions actually make children safer.