Disproportionality in Daily Metal Detector Student Searches in U.S. Public Schools

Abstract

While the effectiveness of metal detectors to improve school safety remains debated, many public schools continue to rely on this technology to control school violence. Among them is the 1% of public schools where students are searched on a daily basis by metal detector. This study examines the school-level risk factors associated with daily searches to estimate the disproportionality of their use in high-violence, majority-minority public schools. Analyzing data from the 2007−2008 School Survey on Crime and Safety, this study finds that 91% of public schools that perform daily metal detector searches of students are high-violence, majority-minority schools. However, the results also show that, among high-violence schools, those with majority-minority enrollments are significantly more likely than others to conduct these searches. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of policy responses to school violence that are distinct and disproportionate according to student demographics, rather than safety conditions. KEYWORDS metal detectors, urban schools, disproportionality, students of color, school violenceWhile the use of metal detectors is the rarest intervention used by public schools to reduce school violence, it remains among the most controversial. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that, in the 2009−2010 school year, only 1% of public schools conducted daily metal detector checks of students. Urban schools (3.7%), high schools (4.8%), schools of 1,000 students or more (4%), schools enrolling 50% or more students of color (3.4%), and schools where more than three quarters of

Investigating the Effects of Commonly Implemented School Safety Strategies on School Social Work Practitioners in the United States

“…Contrary to findings in Cuellar (in preparation), there was a significant positive correlation between authoritarian and educational/therapeutic strategies in the model. These findings are consistent with previous literature and research (Gastic & Johnson, 2014;Kupchick, 2010;Kupchik & Ward, 2014;Larsen, 2003;Servoss, 2014;Servoss & Finn, 2014;Warner, Weist, & Krulak, 1999).…”

“…In a systematic literature review, identified seven studies focused on effects of metal detectors on students, all of which utilized data from self-report surveys, and found that only one study provided limited support for their use in reducing the number of weapons brought into schools. Moreover, recent research by Gastic (2011) and Gastic and Johnson (2014) suggests that metal detectors compromise students' feelings of safety in United…”

“…Much of the research concerning the disproportional use of authoritarian approaches was conducted using three large, publically available secondary datasets originating from self-report (Gastic, 2011;Gastic & Johnson, 2014;Irwin, Davidson, & Hall-Sanchex, 2013;Kupchik & Ellis, 2008;Servoss, 2014;Servoss & Finn, 2014). These studies have excellent external validity and suggest the use of authoritarian strategies in United States schools is disproportional in larger secondary schools characterized by a greater percentage of students who are of low socio-economic status or majority-minority.…”

“…These schools are termed "high-security schools" (Servoss, 2014) and are often characterized by a large percentage of students who are of low socio-economic status (Kupchick, 2010;. Research has also found that high-security schools are often characterized by majority-minority student populations where racial and ethnic minority students make up the largest percentage of the student body (Gastic & Johnson, 2014;Servoss & Finn, 2014). This was complimented by the findings of Kupchik & Ward (2014) that suggest the majority of "exclusionary" safety strategies (i.e., authoritarian strategies) in elementary, middle, and secondary schools were present in schools with large proportions of non-white and low socio-economic status students.…”

The Role of Technology in Improving K-12 School Safety

“…What it is. Metal detectors and X-ray machines are used by school security staff to inspect students for weapons, which are confiscated if found (Gastic and Johnson, 2014). Metal detectors search for weapons on a person's body, whereas X-ray machines are used to inspect students' bags for weapons (Green, 2005).…”