Today a boy was shot and wounded by a cop after he tried to bring a gun to school.
 
The boy fled when he set the metal detector off, and the cop shot the boy during the pursuit. The kid is still alive
 
The story got me wondering just exactly when metal detectors became the norm at high school, when they became necessary. I did a quick check and found that they were first introduced in 1994. Apparently, after the detectors and other measures were instituted, violent deaths decreased by 50 percent in U.S. high schools.
 
My high school introduced these measures the year after I left—2002. That year, they had a shooting scare. This wasn’t the first either– that one came when I still attended my old alma mater.
 
Someone left a message on the boy’s room wall saying that he would kill everyone the next day. One of the suspects was in my gym class. For some reason, this kid always talked to me. That day, he told me he didn’t do it.
 
I remember he had also recently burned stars onto the backs of his hands with red-hot cookie cutters.
 
He didn’t do it. But someone did. Maybe the guilty party didn’t mean it. Maybe it was a joke or an idle threat. Regardless, I stayed home the next day, because for every idle threat, there’s a kid who sets off metal detectors.

1. amaltby, January 23, 2008:

   maybe a TV show reference is a bit too light for a post like this, but did you ever watch “my so-called life”? during its all-too-short run in 1994-1995, there was an episode where ricky brought a gun to school and accidentally shot someone’s locker, making their soda explode all over the place. there was a huge, dramatic investigation, and i don’t remember exactly what happened, but we soon found out that ricky had brought the gun because he didn’t feel safe.

   last scene of the episode: the kids walk into school the next morning to find a row of metal detectors waiting for them.

2. brennane, January 24, 2008:

   I did! And I remember that episode. Oh! teen angst.