POSITION STATEMENT
October 1, 2016
We, the caregivers and educators of children at the Lab School, have serious concerns about the new security measures instituted at the Historic campus and Earl Shapiro Hall.
Currently at Lab children may not hold open a door for a friend they have known since infancy if their friend is not wearing an ID badge. Teachers may not hold “unauthorized” doors open for parents or colleagues they know well. A parent who forgets their ID is barred from entry to classrooms by a security guard they know by name; teachers and administrators are required to treat longtime colleagues in the same way as strangers. Equally disturbing is the placement of armed University of Chicago Police Officers within the school buildings.
Extensive research illustrates these types of measures erode community trust and ultimately make children less safe, not more. This research aligns with the views of experienced security professionals, including those at the National Association of Secondary Principals.
We believe the most effective way to ensure safety of our children is by actively fostering an environment of trust, where people are encouraged to speak up if someone or something doesn’t feel right. A position statement, endorsed by 183 organizations and more than 200 prevention scholars and practitioners, written in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, bolsters our position.
The best tool in our arsenal is the network of personal relationships between parents, teachers, and security guards that has grown organically over generations. This is what will make Lab School safe. The measures being taken will have deep and long lasting impact on the culture of our school community and are antithetical to the very thing that provides protection: community and trust.
We support the following:
1) Staff and Lab School security personnel should have discretion to ask or not ask for an ID-lanyard check. Give our own Lab School security guards the authority to decide who is a potential threat, and encourage an environment of vigilance so they can make such judgments shrewdly. Teachers and students should be similarly empowered.
2) Police officers should be removed from inside school walls. The University of Chicago Police, one of the largest private police forces in the country, is just steps away. The presence of police in the halls of the school undermines the fundamental mission and vision of Lab. “We ignite and nurture an enduring spirit of scholarship, curiosity, creativity, and confidence. We value learning experientially, exhibiting kindness, and honoring diversity.”
3) Current security policies should be revisited through an open, transparent and inclusive process with parents, teachers, students, caregivers, administrators and security guards.
Science tells us that trust and community is what really keeps us safe. Lab school, unlike many schools in this country, already has both. The way for us to be safe is to build on what already makes us strong: our relationships to each other.
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