Wednesday, March 26, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
DESPITE protests to the contrary, there's an increasing perception among students and their families that public schools are no longer safe.
More than 1,000 crimes were logged at Clark County schools in this calendar year alone, and 48 of those crimes involved weapons. Worse, school police and other students estimate that only a minority of weapons are confiscated. Many students are armed out of fear. Some pack guns and knifes to intimidate others. Not only students are involved. Weapons have been confiscated from nonstudents hanging around high school parking lots.
As the SUN reported Sunday, the perception that safety has eroded is forcing some parents to send their children to private schools.
School Superintendent Brian Cram insists public schools are safer than society and that efforts are being made to make them safer. But being safer than open society is clearly not good enough. Most private schools don't have the same level of disruption, because they impose strict discipline and threaten expulsion for certain offenses.
But private schools don't have to take all the children. They can refuse to keep troublemakers, a luxury not afforded to public schools. Nor do many parents have the financial wherewithal to send their children to private school.
That places the onus on the school district to ensure that students can safely attend classes. More school police and better security measures and a review of behavior rules are needed. More important, metal detectors will rid the schools of weapons.
Cram argues against protective prison-like fences on campus and says metal detectors would reduce the number of accesses to school buildings -- possibly imposing a time-consuming inconvenience. Perhaps so, but airports routinely screen passengers to ensure safety and no sensible person objects.
Clark County schools are approaching a similar position. The school district already has too many indications of potential trouble. Why wait for another tragedy as occurred five years ago when a student was shot to death in the cafeteria?
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