Visible school security measures and its effects on youth: an analysis of U.S. 10th graders
Date
2017
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The use of visible school security measures remains controversial. Although some scholars have theorized that these measures can be helpful in securing schools, other scholars suggest that these security measures may lead to worse student behavior and negative school climates (Hirschfield, 2008; Kupchik & Monahan, 2006). Virtually no attempts have been made to explore how certain visible security measures, such as random metal detector checks on students, closed campus for students during lunch, random dog sniffs to check for drugs, random sweeps for contraband, enforced strict dress code, use of cameras to monitor school, emergency call buttons in classrooms, and an observed security guard at the school may influence students’ feelings about school. More specifically, do these visible security measures result in an increased liking or disliking of students’ feelings about school? ☐ In this thesis, I use the Education Longitudinal Study: 2002 to examine whether these visible security measures have an influence on students’ feelings about school. To ascertain whether these visible security measures influenced certain races differently, race-specific models were also examined. Results reflect that metal detector presence resulted in an increase of White students’ liking of school. An observed call button in classrooms resulted in a decrease of White students’ liking of school. However, the results did not reflect a significant association between metal detector presence and Black and Hispanic students’ liking of school, or an observed call button in classrooms and Black and Hispanic students’ liking of school. All other visible security measures that were included as youth control complex variables in this study did not display any significant association with students’ feelings about school. ☐ Overall, I did not find strong relationships between visible security measures and students’ liking of school. These findings mean that the literature needs to be revisited to examine why the relationships appear to be weak between visible security measures and students’ liking of school. Metal detectors are not as effective as the literature has presented them to be. For instance, the presence of metal detectors had no relationship with Black or Hispanic students’ liking of school. These findings also suggest that visible security measures shape students’ perceptions of schools inconsistently. Although one visible security measure appears to be affective (metal detectors) in increasing White students’ liking of school, my findings reflect that a visible call button in the classroom had the opposite affect on White students. Concerns about security practices should not be ignored. However, they should be used based off of effectiveness. Schools should consider conducting yearly surveys to examine how the implementation of visible security measures has impacted schools as well as students. This would allow for schools to be able to assess whether these visible security measures are achieving what they aim to do or if they are more harmful than helpful.
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Keywords
Social sciences, Control, Hyper-criminalization, School, Security, Surveillance, Youth