Are Metal Detectors Necessary in Schools

402 Words2 Pages
Are Metal Detectors Necessary in Schools? While school shootings are a terrible thing that happens in our society, metal detectors are unnecessary in our schools today. Do metal detectors deter people from walking into a building and start shooting everyone? The cons of having metal detectors in schools are that they are costly, can create a bottleneck near the machines, and are useless if the shooter is outside the school. Metal detectors do not have a place in schools, and should not be the choice that school districts make. School metal detectors can be very costly. They can cost up to 5,000 dollars per machine, and most schools would require multiple units. Also, you need extra security guards to man the machines. The security guards would need to be properly trained on how to operate the machines, and training them adds to the cost of the machine. The total cost of the metal detectors and properly trained security guards could result in cut backs to other school activities, such as sports and music programs. School metal detectors could create a bottleneck near the machines, and this could be deadly. It would seem that a shooter would have many easy targets created by a crowd of people in one place. Bottlenecks could also cause students to be late to class, therefore being very disruptive to the school day. What if the shooter is outside the building? The shooter can be on the playground, or on the buses. You can’t have metal detectors everywhere. They are useless if the shooter is outside. The shooter can already be on the playground or in the bushes waiting for the students. Also, what if the shooter is on a bus? He could potentially take the whole bus hostage and have many easy
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