LAUSR

The use of security measures has drastically increased in the hallways of US schools over the past three decades. Although previous studies have assessed the impact of school security measures on student outcomes, little attention has been given to understanding what factors lead schools to adopt such measures. Using the Educational Longitudinal Study data and guided by minority threat hypotheses, the current research assesses the impact of school racial composition on the use of security measures. Findings indicate the size of the Black student population is related to schools utilizing metal detectors, security guards, surveillance cameras, required ‘check-in’ areas and fencing around the entire school, while a null effect was found between Hispanic student representation and the majority of security measures. On the other hand, both Black and Hispanic student representation significantly related to the overall number of security measures utilized within schools. The differential impact of race and ethnicity is addressed.