Common physical and exclusionary safety measures can cause harm to the very students schools are trying to protect¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · theoretical r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2022 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? School safety officers, metal detectors, surveillance cameras, fences, and zero-tolerance policies can cause harm to the students they are meant to protect. → Trout 2022

Evidence¶

Trout 2022¶

Trout, L., Pate, C., Wu, K., & McKenna, J. (2022). Reimagining school safety: A guide for schools and communities. WestEd. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED628885

q2 · i? · theoretical · r2

The guide asserts, in its Paradigm of Safety section, that "Attempts to bring safety to schools via school safety officers, metal detectors, surveillance cameras, fences, and zero-tolerance policies can, in fact, cause harm." The guide offers no effect size for this assertion.

"Attempts to bring safety to schools via school safety officers, metal detectors, surveillance cameras, fences, and zero-tolerance policies can, in fact, cause harm to the very students schools are trying to protect."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Safety — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Metal detector use disproportionately affects students of color, who are more likely to pass through detectors daily — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Two mass shootings exemplify how metal detectors can be insufficient at stopping such attacks — related
• Students report feeling less safe and more likely to perceive violence and disorder in schools with metal detectors — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Metal detector effectiveness depends heavily on the human element: training, correct operation and functioning equipment — related
• CPS officials and CBO leaders intended the WSS Framework to ground safety plans in community perspectives, facilitate power-sharing, and redefine school safety — related
• Available data suggest schools with metal detectors identify more weapons through searches without scanning devices than through scanning — related
• Metal detectors impose substantial equipment, personnel, training and time costs on schools — related
• Metal detector use in US schools has held steady or slightly decreased since the 1990s despite renewed calls after the Parkland shooting — related
• Hardening strategies such as police in schools and metal detectors intervene too late in the pathway to violence to prevent attacks — related
• District leaders filtered student and community voices through their own perspectives, so neither district fully removed security personnel despite calls to end policing in schools — related
• Security cameras show no evidence of improving school safety, and evidence does not support expanding metal detector use — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Campus policing and surveillance disproportionately burden students of color, who mostly report police do not make them feel safer — a narrower finding that bears on this claim