UC Santa Barbara

This study examines the effectiveness and impacts (intended and unintended) on students of a district-wide school policy that requires random hand-held metal detector searches of students in grades 6-12 at over 900 public and charter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). LAUSD is the second largest school district in the country and the policy affects thousands of students. Yet, school safety policies of mandatory daily physical searches with the use of metal detectors at school are uncommon and are in decline nationally. In a 2017 joint study, The National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that in 2013-14 only 4.5% of U.S. schools practice random metal detector searches of students, down from 7.2% in 1999-2000 (NCES, 2018). LAUSD administrators, however, still contend that the search policy and use of high security technology, like metal detectors, are necessary to promote school safety, including preparing for gun violence on campus, and protect against liability. In contrast, some teachers and students have expressed the view that mandatory searches harm the learning environment, negatively impact students and student morale, and send students a negative message of suspicion (Brown, 2006; Thibault, 2016; Mallett, 2016; Nance, 2017). Critics also observe that the metal detector search policy appears to be unevenly employed across the nation and is disproportionately applied to students of color in low-income neighborhoods (Monroe, 2005; Robbins, 2008; Skiba et al., 2011; Fine et al., 2014; Kupchik and Ward, 2014; Gastic and Johnson, 2015; Nance, 2017). This raises the possibility that unconscious bias may be influencing policy making or implementation on the issue. As this policy controversy unfolds, there is currently insufficient research on the impact of the searches in grades 6-12 to determine the policy effects on students. This research project helps to fill this gap within scholarly literature. In turn, this study’s findings shed new light on the specific policy question of whether the student search policies at LAUSD positively contributes to school climate and student well-being. Interviews and surveys with teachers were used to probe the possible impacts on learning environments and outcomes, student self-perception and sense of self, peer-to-peer perceptions and interactions, student-teacher rapport, and other factors. Secondary materials such as district policies, district memos, district audits, school board meeting notes, district handbooks for staff, faculty, parents, and students, district public announcements, district public presentations, district online informational videos, and news articles were relied on as archival materials. Using the work of LeDoux (1996, 2014, 2016, 2021), I examine how LAUSD administrators responded to concerns from the public with threat responses that came from irrational and reactionary points of reference rather than actual data and collective decision-making. To help remedy fear-based policy making, I present a democratic policy making process using the work of Harold D. Lasswell (1951, 1971).