Should there be security checks in schools?

VIOLENT SCHOOL OF THOUGHT: CNN-IBN panelists debate if frisking in schools will help matters.

      

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A Class VIII student of a boarding school in Gurgaon was shot dead by two of his classmates in the school premises on Tuesday.

Fourteen-year-old Abhishek Tyagi, a student of Euro International School in Gurgaon’s Sector 45, and the son of a city-based property dealer was shot by two of his classmates as it is believed to be enmity between them.

The two accused have been sent to 14 days in judicial custody by a local court. They will be lodged at a juvenile home in Faridabad.

"One of the boys had used his father's licensed revolver and allegedly fired four shots at Abhishek near a staircase in the school. He had then handed the gun to the other accused who fired another bullet," Police Commissioner, Gurgaon, Mohinder Lal said.

The parents of both the accused have been absconding and have not been traced by the police yet. However, the police have registered an additional case of negligence under the Arms Act against Azad Singh Yadav, the father of the accused but admit that they have not made much headway.

The question that was discussed on CNN-IBN show, Face The Nation was: Should there be security checks in schools?

On the panel to try and answer the question was Principal, Modern School, Lata Vaidyanathan and Professor of Sociology, JNU, Surinder S Jodhka.

Policed Or Just Watched?

Euro International School website claims there are CCTV cameras installed in every classroom. But do they really help? Many schools are also mulling introducing frisking as a security measure.

Lata Vaidyanathan partly agreed to the suggestion and felt a deterrent helps. “I think that some kind of unobtrusive electronic surveillance is essential in large schools where access of human beings to every nook and corner becomes difficult,” Vaidyanathan said.

She suggested that people should feel that they are being watched but not necessarily policed.

Making an interesting point, she also said that the problem simply did not arise out of security checks but a whole culture of confidence, trust and faith must be built up in schools.

“In one side the physical infrastructure and the human intervention in the form of security checks is important but on the other side it is important to have counseling in processes which are compelling and continuous in many ways,” said Vaidyanathan.

Parental Guidance, A Must

When the result of an enmity can reach such a stage that children can put a gun on each other, are parents to be blamed for this kind of situation?

Surinder S Jodhka said that it was a part of a child’s growing up, the kind of relationship that he had with parents and the kind of atmosphere he had in his school.

“I think it is not a question of policing and installing cameras metal detectors, that would not make any difference at all as there would be violence still and there would be aggression. This is not crime. One should make a distinction between what happens in the school and actual cases of crime,” Jodhka said.