Inner-city schools may be deemed safer

Has the nation gone crazy? There have been three schools shooting in the past week. But wait a minute; did any of the shootings happen in inner-city schools? Any in the so-called bad schools?

The answer to that question would be, no.

It seems that the public tends to view inner-city schools as less safe and secure than rural and suburban districts, but some officials think otherwise.

Ken Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, a consulting firm in Cleveland, believes that urban districts are better prepared.

The problem arises because the suburban, rural and private schools have yet to get over the, “it can’t happen here” mentality.

It seems the inner-city schools have done something right like putting metal detectors in the schools and subjecting students to daily bag searches before allowing them to enter the building.

Maybe other school districts will learn from them. Don’t ever think it can’t happen to you.

“Inner cities are considered the problem hotspots and rural areas are safer,” said Ronald Stephens, executive director of the California-based National School Safety Center. But, “this (recent schools shooting) is a reminder that no place, person or school system is immune from violence.”

For example, at Daroff Elementary School in West Philadelphia, 28 cameras are able to scan the entire school as well as the McDonalds’s across the street.

Students, visitors and faculty are also required to walk through a metal detector.

Although those measurements seem hard to some, there has yet to be a shooting at the school.

Other school districts need to jump on the bandwagon and make their students, visitors and faculty walk through metal detectors and have their bags searched on a daily basis. Whatever they are doing now in these “safe-area” schools are just not working.

Take advice from the inner-city schools and search for these crazy people who are polluting our schools with violence.

Katrelle Simmons for the Editorial board.