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12/02/2004: "Standoff in Philly schools"
There's a growing rift between John Street and Paul Vallas over whether or not armed police ought to be assigned to Philadelphia public high schools. After three horrific incidents- only one of which occurred outside of a high school (and after the school day)- it seems as though Vallas is looking for a face saving way to improve security.
Street, I think correctly, stands opposed to armed cops in school buildings.
My experience was that there were plenty of police in school buildings. Like any profession, there were good ones, bad ones, and crazy ones. For the most part, though, they were taking direction from administrators, and if you had a revolving door in the principal's office, the school police would develop their own ideas about how to control the school.
Second, firearms won't change the building structure. The problem at Stetson,and at most public schools, is that there is truly no effective way to control the whole space. Fire towers, back stairways, fifty entrances- you can't do it. Your only hope is to try and create a culture within the building that supports learning, and to pray that you don't get assigned a mentally ill child who does something awful.