The alleged "school-to-prison pipeline" isn't due to basic security, it's due to zero tolerance and exclusionary policies like the one that expelled the Parkland student, and it's also rooted in deeper socioeconomic issues, none of which we have seen in these mass school shootings. The articles I've linked note that NO mass school shootings have occurred in major urban schools; instead, they've occurred in rural or suburban schools, in the opposite environments of urban environments. The Parkland shooter's economic background is upper class, his mother left an estate of more than a million dollars, that school district has been consistently ranked as one of the most wealthy school districts in the country. The school districts that have already implemented the metal detector programs are in urban areas where there is a lot of gang activity, where fights were breaking out in school and students were at risk of being stabbed to death daily, let alone being shot. Ultimately, it's the school's and the school district's responsibility to insure the safety of the student, but also to reach out to students with problems.
And that's also a big problem; these kids don't matter one fucking bit to the school districts. They're all education factories, churning out ill-equipped students; the ones who are having trouble -- be it economically, mentally, educationally, behaviorally -- will be
ignored or will be kicked out, and will sink or swim, with no help from the education factory.
I once sat next to a woman at a bar who worked in an administrative office in the Racine WI school district; she was complaining about the poor parents in Racine who didn't pay for their kids' lunches; evidently, you don't get free lunches, you get discounted lunches, and if you don't pay your lunch bill, the district cuts your kid off and your kid gets no lunch. And I asked why they don't pick up the phone and call the parents. And she said, "well, we SEND HOME A NOTE!" Come on, lady, you know how kids are with NOTES. They're lucky they remember to put on a jacket to go home, you think they're gonna remember to give Mom a note? What if Mom works two jobs? What if Mom can't afford it and the kid knows it and doesn't give it to Mom? Why are you putting the KID in charge of this, anyway? Why aren't you making these lunches FREE, anyway? This woman was genuinely PISSED that she even had to deal with it, in the first place, like why don't these people just pay their damned bills. And I kept thinking about those poor kids who got a lunch in line, only to be told that their Mom hadn't paid the lunch bill and sorry, no lunch for you, so they go hungry that day, and suffer humiliation.
We're the richest country in the nation with the shittiest fucking schools systems. Bernie Sanders wants $15 minimum wage, but that fixes NOTHING; we should have better CAREERS for people, instead of having them spend a lifetime in a fucking $15.00/hour career that won't pay for shit. But giving people careers in high school, getting off this fucking COLLEGE track and paying for VOCATIONAL training, too, is the solution, not "here's a bigger minimum wage, go have fun at Target."
Anyway ...
The Parkland shooter had mental and social difficulties,
the Sheriff's Deputy and guidance counselors at that school had recommended that the kid be Baker Acted, but the school declined. Also, now it ends up that the school district
lied over whether or not the kid was in the "PROMISE" program. And the kid shouldn't have been in that, either, the kid should have been Baker Acted, as recommended. The kid's adopted mother had been pretty much begging for help, but the system didn't give a shit.
And the system does the same by giving these kids passing grades and shifting them out into society with no skills, with hardly a basic level of education, and with mostly fear of what will happen to them. Interviews with students around the country indicate that most feel it's not a matter of "if" but "when" the same thing will happen in their schools. How can students study when they don't even feel safe? The reality is that these shootings are fairly rare, relative to the VAST number of schools in our country. But, the media continues to publish the names of the shooters, carving a sure path to glory.