Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain R
"Over the past quarter-century, on average about 10 students are slain in school shootings annually."
Okay, I've been officially baited.
The above is the non-obvious drive of my "do you want to be safer or feel safer" comment.
A while ago there was a high speed police chase near my kids' school that ended with a crash. Parents were very concerned about this, and asked what if that crash had happened during school hours one block over at the school. Barriers to "protect the school" were proposed.
Yet, as I am acutely aware from dropping my kids off, they are FAR more likely to get hit by a car driven by an impatient school parent who is trying to make a left turn into the dropoff area than a gangbanger fleeing the cops. Hurried parents drive like **** and kids have to face that every day.
Surrounding the school with barriers makes us FEEL safer but only marginally increases safety. Creating a second dropoff zone or prohibiting left turns would actually increase safety, but most people probably wouldn't even realize it. And it would probably anger people because now their kids have to cross the street or reduce the parking spaces people use to walk their kids into school.
On one hand, doing something to make people feel better seems ridiculous. On the other hand, if you improve peoples' lives and they don't see the benefit, what good is it?
I agree with the Captain. It's not a simple question.
But I do think the "kids" get a say. Welcome to the grown up world, it's messy and complicated and the best solutions usually leave everyone a little mad.