Sorry, but thats not the world I want to live in. Going through metal gates, armed guards and metal detectors to go to school? For a risk that is statistically infinitesimal?
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Still applicable 250 years later.
First, I agree you with about the mathematical odds being low for any given school to be attacked. There are roughly 150k public schools in the USA and in the last decade no more than 20 have been attacked. So, the percentage is 20 divided by 10x150k. That’s about 1 out of 75000. So the chances of my school being hit are remote if conditions stay the same.
As far as freedom at school, I disagree with you. I never remember school being about freedom. I remember being strictly regimented, structured, and directed. I never have thought of it as anything other than a time of fairly rigid discipline.
So, I don’t see school as teaching a lesson about security versus freedom. School wasn’t about freedom.
As I already stated, being in a guarded, cordoned area never made me feel less free. In fact, knowing people wanted to hurt us and also knowing guards were out and our compound intact made me more free to accomplish the mission.
That’s why colonial forts had walls.
So, do I go with the odds or do I harden the schools because it’s a workable way to keep potential bad guys outside the compound?
I prefer the hardening. The cost is irrelevant to me. I’d rather they be hardened than not. Then I’m sure I’ve done my due diligence.