NYC students call on mayor to eliminate metal detectors in schools

In order to get to school every day, approximately 100,000 New York City school children must pass through metal detectors, bag searches and pat downs administered by police personnel. While advocates have been calling for an end to the over policing of kids at schools for many years, there is now a petition on the website change.org, which calls on New York City mayor Bill de Blasio to put an end to metal detectors in schools.

80% of incidents in which police are involved in schools with permanent metal detectors are non-criminal incidents.

The use of metal detectors as an occasional security measure in New York City schools was started during the 1980s. However, the current vast deployment of the NYPD to schools is the result of the “Impact Schools” initiative, which doubled the number of police personnel assigned to specific schools and started a “roving” metal detector program that included unannounced spot checks. It was set by the previous administration of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Petitioners on Change.org hope that by eliminating metal detectors, schools will be a place to prepare for college and careers, and not for what they term as second-class citizenship.