A Good Start on School Safety

The campus security crisis at Memphis City Schools left Mayor Willie Herenton with no other choice than to step up with a plan for more police officers and more weapons screening.

MCS could go 10 years without another violent episode, and that would not erase the stain left this week by the third school shooting since Oct. 24.

Herenton’s decision to commit 67 more police officers to the current 42-member school detail and step up the use of metal detectors in the schools will not guarantee the safety of every city schoolchild.

But it will decrease the degree of risk in the schools by discouraging kids from bringing guns.

It is far from the answer to the complex tapestry of social and economic conditions that produce a school shooter.

Any student who marches into a gym class, fires three rounds into a fellow student in front of 75 witnesses, calmly gives the gun up to a teacher and surrenders to the almost certain fate of a lengthy period of harsh confinement is a child who, for whatever reason, cannot envision for himself a productive and hopeful future.

That’s exactly what a Mitchell High student is accused of doing on Monday. An accidental shooting Oct. 24 at Manassas High and an intentional shooting Feb. 4 at Hamilton High wounded two other students and left untold numbers of schoolchildren fearful or traumatized.

Lester School students and their parents were left to wonder what might have happened if a security check had not turned up a pistol in the backpack of a 14-year-old student Wednesday.

For the most part, school administrators and city officials have not overreacted to these very real problems in a district that prior to this month had not seen an intentional campus shooting in anyone’s memory.

Thankfully, school board member Kenneth Whalum Jr. got little support for his suggestion to shut down city schools, which would have freed tens of thousands of youngsters to wander the streets with less guidance and supervision than they have now.

The community’s dialogue should turn now to the question of how to improve the lives of its young people and its families.

School safety will improve with the enhanced security measures announced this week by the mayor. It will improve more when young people in Memphis come to believe that life will bring them opportunities to lead successful, productive and happy lives.

That’s a goal worth working for, and there are roles to be played by government and the private sector. Adopt a school. Mentor a child. Coach a team. Give to the nonprofit child advocacy organization of your choice. Do something. Police and student screening will go only so far.

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Herenton plan should help

Ultimate solutions to violence in the lives of Memphis youth lie far beyond campus safety.

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