If you’re of a certain age, you can remember a time when it was pretty much unthinkable that violence would occur at school. Today, however, it’s almost become “the norm,” sadly, and that’s why many school districts, whether rural, suburban or city, hire school security guards.
The Debate on Whether Schools Need Security Guards
There is a debate on whether or not to hire guards for schools, because there are pros and cons to having them there, highly visible on school grounds. Some people might ask, “Do we really need them?” Others might say, “Can we afford them?” Then, of course, there are people, especially parents, who say, “Of course they should be there! I want my kid protected!”
The Pros
Having school security guards can be a good thing if you want competent and caring adults monitoring school grounds to help prevent crimes and/or intervene if and when something’s “not right.” Guards help ensure that people and property don’t get hurt or damaged, so that’s a good thing. Meanwhile, their presence lets people know they’re being watched and if they do something wrong there is someone watching who will report them to authorities– and they’ll likely face consequences. Furthermore, schools today can have emotional, physical and even sexual abuse going on between students, teachers, employees and/or visitors– a lot could go wrong if no one’s watching, right? Imagine if a stranger finds their way into a school, and they have a knife or gun and want to do harm… a security guard would be the person to notice them and call the cops. Guards are also on the lookout for any would-be robbers who want to steal computers or oddballs who want to kidnap kids.
Reasons Why Some Are Skeptical
What, then, would be some reasons people might object to having security guards in schools? For starters, it might make the students nervous or scared to have uniformed authority figures around them. They might feel so distressed that they avoid coming to school. Is this a bit irrational? Sure. But it happens. Also, there’s the cost. School budgets are notoriously tight, and for that reason there might be objections over paying guards to be there. With that, there’s also the cost of insurance for school security guards, which could cost “too much.”
If you ask most parents, though, paying school security guards to be present and working on the grounds of their kids’ school is totally worth it. They want to know their kids are protected from potential harm, and in today’s day and age, with all the crazy, somewhat unexpected violence happening in schools, having guards there becomes a necessity.
In Western and Central New York, if you need to hire school security guards, call C.O.P. Security at 585-750-5608. We have years of experience providing private security services, and all of our guards are fully trained and equipped to handle all types of situations. Although we’ve made our name in the Rochester area, we also provide schools security services throughout Western New York, including but not limited to Orleans County, Ontario County, Monroe, County and Wayne County.