Needed After Portsmouth: A Clear Picture, Not a Narrative
I didn’t plan to take up the former student’s assault of a Portsmouth High School teacher again, but something missing from the Providence Journal coverage of the released police report really should be part of the public discussion. Specifically, reporter Katie Mulvaney leaves out the following, from the report (which I saw in full earlier but now can’t find):
[The suspect] was banging on the doors and she opened the door to redirect him to the main office.
We still don’t have sufficient details to offer a fair opinion of blame. If the teacher recognized the former student, for example, it might be difficult to fault her for letting her guard down.
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That said, what we know from the police report is that the teacher made it possible for her assailant to enter the building, and the school resource officer trailed behind the incident until it was over. Those are very important details to keep in mind as people proclaim their opinions on what should be done following this incident.
Adding new personnel and security measures would come at a cost, not only in the money that might go to more useful purposes, but also in the environment under which students live, affecting their sense of community and expectations of the world. Meanwhile, no security system will be immune to human error.