Feeling safe at school with metal detectors

Metal detectors, according to this report, give schools an organizational stigma. Students’ increased dread at school is one sign of this. This research shows that metal detectors are adversely associated with kids’ feeling of safety at school, net of the amount of violence at school, using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health using a matched-pair design. For urban kids, however, the relationship is different. Kids in urban schools had a 13 percent lower negative connection between metal detectors and their feeling of safety than students in suburban or rural schools. Metal detectors are one method used by American public schools to address the issue of firearms in classrooms. Despite the high financial expenses of purchasing and maintaining metal detectors, many school districts have been able to afford them by relying on state and federal money set aside for school safety initiatives.