Safety

Less than a mile from my house, my bank has a branch on a busy street.  I believe those employees and the money housed therein enjoy a safe environment.
If you were to go to my bank, cameras would watch as you approached.
Once you get to the door at that bank, you enter a tiny thick Plexiglas room. Immediately, you get locked into that room while key persons inside the bank visually assess you and your possible motives. Then
you will be asked by a disembodied voice why you have come. If you try to get two people into that tiny
room, the doors will automatically stop opening to admit you.
Several banker eyes are on you as you approach a teller or manager. I get the sense every one of those
employees is well-trained. Every one of them must have a plan in case someone in their line of sight makes a wrong move. At some point before you complete a transaction at this bank, bank officials there become more relaxed.
I don't imagine my bankers are packing...but security is. Were you to get off a shot, you'd be down within
seconds. All of this was very irritating at first. But as time went on, I'd always think: 'Well, whoever you are
I doubt you're betting in here to do dirty work.'
I don't believe schools could use the tiny Plexiglas trap at the entry bell or for dismissal. However, in an
elementary school, officials could have eyes on open doors, and let adults know not to pass a certain
point.
At the middle school where my daughter sends her child, try to get a parent-teacher meeting.  You have to
know what you are doing. That school is on serious lock down. One entrance, and one entrance only opens
at the starting bell; and you'd better obviously be a kid before you approach that metal detector.
Guards are behind the heavy, heavy, door. One entrance, and only one entrance opens at dismissal.
Kids in this city didn't do mass killings, but they were not above bringing weapons to school in order to protect themselves. Having gangs here meant younger students felt they had to be armed in order to feel safe.
Parents have to call in order to get into our school, because many times teen aged parents, cousins, older
brothers and sisters were coming to school to settle conflicts originating with family members but without school officials' interventions.
We welcome the boundaries between the well-intentioned, and the reactionaries. Those guarding our school
borders, and reinforcing those boundaries are friendly enough as community members. But as school protectors, they will ask you very quickly- 'What are you here to do?'
In the mornings, and at dismissal, there are two or three guards at the door to have one anothers' backs.
Many times, in order to enter at our school one has to call the office. The office double-checks the incoming phone number against their records. If they say they will call back, they always call back right away.
Our schools are painfully slow on some things we'd like to see. However, they normally call parents once a
week or so to inform them about school/community happenings.
So the office never seems completely remote or inaccessible. And the safety we take for granted is provided
by persons we come to know, to trust, to appreciate - maybe by October of each year.