GREENZONING CLEVEDAD…
1709 by Jeff Hess
On Tuesday I wrote about the pitiful attempt by the Cleveland School System to create an illusion of school safety by depriving students of $5 million worth of books, supplies and teachers in exchange for some smoke and mirrors. Now, students tell how silly and ineffective the metal detectors and rent-a-cops really are.
What the Cleveland Public School system is so sadly attempting to do is duplicate the failed policy that created the Greenzone in Baghdad. Islands of security just force violence into other corners. It isn’t working there and it won’t here.
From Street Smarts:
My students seem to be in agreement that a metal detector in the building would not be much of a deterrent to any student who was intent upon bringing a weapon into the school. There are too many entrances (at least 15) and easily accessible first floor windows.
These would be almost impossible to control, especially if there was more than one student determined to enact a vendetta type of confrontation. Every one of the kids in my morning class told me they had already figured out a way to smuggle something into the building if a metal detector was brought in, and quite frankly, it wasn’t much of a challenge.
One boy said there was probably more to fear from an assailant out in the parking lot than inside the building anyway.
Good observation, I thought.
One point of discussion the kids raised was the fact that in all of the school shooting cases where the shooter was a student, there were plenty of signals and even warnings, that were ignored or not taken seriously.
A twelfth grade boy said, “It’s hard enough to make the decision to snitch, but then, when you do tell a teacher or a principal, and they act like they can’t be bothered with your stupid stuff, it makes you not want to talk to any of the adults, ‘cuz they ‘ll just blow you off.”
The conversation then morphed into a gripe session about teachers; which ones they could talk to, who they could trust, who was fake, who liked to get kids in trouble, who was mean, who really seemed like they cared.
I just listened.
How much better our community might be if more people listened.
Nearly three years ago Bill Callahan was instrumental in the creation of 
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is 
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My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. 
I’m doing my best to stay on top of events in 
