In a month, Lafayette High School will have an update to their security. Metal detectors will be placed in select entrances at Lafayette because of the growing danger and frequency of school shootings. According to Campus Safety, there has been 1,300 school shooting incidents reported since 1970. 2018 had the greatest number of incidents since 1970, with over 80 recorded incidents.

After many shootings in the United States, including one in Marshall County, Kentucky last year, the Fayette County district has made their decision on an advance to school safety. The Fayette County school district has taken steps to implement  metal detectors at Fayette County Public Schools in order to keep the students safe and out of danger. All Fayette County high schools will have metal detectors installed, in the near future.

With the arrival of metal detectors, both students and teachers will have to make an adjustment to their daily school lives. There have been numerous images and videos going around, showing the long lines in which students at Frederick Douglass wait to enter the building. These images make the students at Lafayette realize the way things will be in the coming weeks. The reality of this change is that many students will have to adjust their schedules. Whether that means getting up earlier, or taking a shower the night before in order to save extra time.

Hypothetically speaking, if it were to roughly take a minutes to search each student, students would be waiting for quite some time. Lafayette High School has about 2,400 students enrolled currently. Try to image 2,400 high school students rushing in every morning to go through the metal detectors, pretty outrageous right?

Would this adjustment start to interfere with the first class of the day? Will there be enough time for students to do what they have to do before class? Will there be enough staff to help students get quickly through the lines? These are questions the Board of Education should consider. With these new detectors, there will probably be large groups of students waiting to enter and go through security. This scenario alone should be a huge safety concern. Large groups of students could be a large safety issue. Although the school district is trying to protect the students at all cost, there are still a few problems that may arise.

“The ID badges that have been implemented at our school seemed annoying and useless, if i’m honest, but as time goes by I realize that they were given to us for our own safety. I can now see how and why it is we are required to wear them. I would 100% rather wear a badge than be unsafe in a building I should feel safe in” says Jake Fitch, a Freshman at Lafayette High school.

Time will only tell what changes these metal detectors will have on teachers and students at Lafayette.