Metal Detectors
“Security Theater,” Not Safer Schools
As debates around school safety take place across the Commonwealth, policymakers have proposed that funding be devoted to a number of school hardening approaches. One of these, the increased installation and use of metal detectors in schools, has been championed as a “non-invasive” way to address school violence and increase school safety. Research tells a very different story, revealing that this approach poses harm by causing students to feel less comfortable and safe in schools, and with little to no evidence that their presence prevents school violence or increases safety. Research also reveals significant racial equity issues with the installation of metal detectors in schools, as they are much more frequently installed in schools with a greater proportion of students of color, further exacerbating disparities.
“Metal Detectors in Schools: ‘Security Theater’, Not Safer Schools” lays out the concerns around the use of metal detectors in schools, which includes: (1) research establishing that their actual impact on safety is unproven, and their impact on perception of safety can be negative; (2) key stakeholders have found their use overly time-consuming, expensive, and an overall disruption to the learning environment; (3) use of metal detectors carry negative social, psychological and developmental impacts on students; (4) there are racial disparities and discriminatory practices associated with the use of metal detectors; and (5) proper implementation of metal detectors creates significant costs to districts.
Key Takeaways
Research shows a lack of evidence that metal detectors increase school safety or decrease school violence, with one analysis of 15 years of research finding ‘insufficient evidence’ that their use decreased crime or violence in schools, but finding evidence that their presence made students feel less safe.
Another study found “insufficient data in the literature to determine whether the presence of metal detectors in schools reduces the risk of violent behavior among students, and some research suggests that the presence of metal detectors may detrimentally impact student perceptions of safety.”
A first-of-its kind empirical analysis —the School Survey on Crime and Safety – found that “schools with 50% or more students of color were over 18 times more likely to use a combination of drastic security measures than schools with less than 20% of students of color, citing that “the distinguishing factor of the schools that have metal detectors is not even the amount of crime in surrounding neighborhoods – instead, it is whether or not a large number of Black and Latino students attend.”
A 2019 study found that students at schools with metal detectors either did not feel more or felt less safe than students at schools without them, stating “metal detectors, security cameras, and the number of visible physical security measures tend to negatively affect perceptions of safety.”
Campus safety group Safe Havens International found that “metal detectors are costly – proper use requires an armed guard – and tend to jam up entrances. They can also create a prison-like feeling among students, have been linked to diminished academic performance, and, worst of all, and don’t work well in school settings.”
A 2017 study found that “the use of intense, coercive surveillance methods, especially when applied disproportionately to students of color, harms students’ interests, delegitimizes the educational process, perpetuates racial inequalities, weakens trust in governmental institutions and processes, skews minorities’ perceptions of their standing in our society, and sends harmful messages to members of all races that students attending majority-white schools enjoy greater privileges and have superior privacy rights.”
Researchers found that “high-poverty schools were disproportionately likely to use such security mechanisms, and that the racial makeup of the student enrollment was a powerful predictor of whether the school would use metal detectors.” Data supports this, as “compared to White students, Black and Latino/a students were 4.8 and 2.7 times, respectively, more likely to pass through a metal detector at their schools.”