Ask Lemmy

I don't see much of a problem myself so long as it's actually for safety purposes and not just for detainment purposes at a normal school.

The elementary and middle school I went to had fencing to keep people out of backyards and the street, and a gully in the case of elementary school. Reasonable. Keeps minors safe just in case a car came by if a kid went to grab a ball they accidentally launched into the street or they decide to explore the fully and fall over and hurt themselves because little kids are good at disappearing and hurting themselves, I swear.

High school? Absolutely no idea why the football field had a fence other than keeping people off the property, which was connected to a park.

Yes, and barbed wire, Czech hedgehogs, guard towers with snipers.

Jokes aside apart from preventing a ball flying into traffic during recess what are we trying to achieve?

They fenced my son's school this summer. Previously it was only the playground and field that was fenced. New fence is 4 ft high, no gates, just gaps at walk ways.

At first I was unhappy about it, feeling that it cut the school off from the community. But then my son and I arrived early one day and had his soccer ball, we were able to really play on a lawn that would have been too small without a fence. So I can see that the fence creates more usable space for the school. And I've come around.

An interesting game to play when driving around the US is “Prison, or School?”

The rules are simple. When driving past any complex with tall fences, quickly blurt out if it’s a prison or school. Then look for signage or check a map application to verify.

You’d be surprised how often you’ll get the answer wrong.

My immediate answer was yeah why not, but then I read the comments about prison fences and realised I was missing some American specific context. The fence's at my schools were waist high with open gates. They were more of a boundary marker than anything else.

Fences are fine. Especially for young kids near the playground and streets.

Except the fact you need to maintain it (which will be in the form of a replacement every 73 years when enough kids get stabbed by it) and it needs to have enough exit points in case of emergency. It shouldn't funnel everyone to one spot in the front.

My schools were fenced in. Nothing threatening or intimidating, it was just chain link with a gate somewhere along it. Keeps the troublesome kids from running off, makes sure everyone can hear the bell, keeps weirdos from coming in during school. And when the school is right next to a forest, that's just sensible.

I like a fence. But if you're going to do it, don't make it look like a damn prison. Whatever happened to a nice brick wall with some pointy ironwork on top of it? It serves the same function as a fence topped in razor wire. But it provides that function without making the place look like a prison. I know it's way more expensive than a chain link fence. But damn. What is the value of the damage done to the souls of all the students that have to go to school behind razor wire. All schools should be surrounded by big brick walls with pointy bits of cast iron on them. Now it's classy and doesn't feel like the fucking state penitentiary.

Sure, otherwise the ~~inmates~~ classmates might escape.

It's different everywhere in the US. I grew up in California. Graduated HS 1989. My elementary and high schools were completely fenced in while the middle school i attended was not at the time, but has been for some time now. Even in high school it was a closed campus and only Seniors were allowed to leave at lunch if their parents signed off on it. It was called "Senior Privileges." I had a friend that went to Highschool about 40mi from me and they had an open campus and everyone could leave at lunch. No clue how those decisions were made, but his HS had a literal smoking section on campus for students. The 80s were a different time.

Yeah but it depends.
An elementary school near me recently replaced their chest-height chain-link fence with a 10ft steel bar fence with spikes on top. There's some benefits to a fence, but the spikes just make it seem menacing. And I guess more abstractly, it communicates that school is a dangerous place that's walled-off from the rest of the world rather than a place that's just like any other part of society. This is in the USA, I should mention, so maybe the cynical message is more accurate.

Depends. I went to a exurb elementary school and it didn't need a fence - walk through the woods until you get bored. However I've also seen schools where there is a busy road nearby and they need something to stop the kids that would run that way. (older kids would not, but very young will run without looking and a few special needs kids have no sense of what is safe)

Dude from where I'm from schools are built like prisons by default: tall external walls, a single big black gate for entrance, ugly indoors without any personality, no locker rooms... We Don't have metal detectors though, only Americans have type of issues

My high school never had a fence around it when I was there, but it has one now and it looks like a fucking prison. IDK what the fuck happened to have them stop allowing off-campus lunch, but that is supposedly why the fence is there now. Literally to keep students on the premises.

Yay.

I'm on the fence about it.

I'm in favor of them. Just from a utilitarian standpoint, it helps to be able to demarcate the bounds of a school so that you don't have random people just wandering up throughout the day mistaking a schoolyard for a park and causing disruptions. Moreover, it gives kids the freedom to roam relatively unsupervised during recess/break time without worry of them wandering off somewhere. In densely-populated areas, it's basically a necessity to fence off athletic fields as well to prevent any accidental damage to nearby property if a ball goes flying.

There's a lot that can be done to make school buildings feel less prison like, but a fence is just a fence and is innocuous enough.

I see no reason not to.

Just put a big sports ground in the back. That tends to have a fence anyways. You can leave the front an open area with buildings to each side. That'll provide another barrier without looking like a prison.

its sad really. the school system was supposed to sorta act as a public space. sorta like community colleges. kids in the day and adults at night. modern world is so messed up though.

as someone who graduated fairly recently (school added the fences my junior year) it just makes that place feel like even more of a fucking prison. also, fences are easy to bypass so all it would achieve is making it harder to escape if a shooter did get in. on top of that shooters are typically students, so it doesn't keep them out to begin with. this means that the only two things it actually achieves are making students feel like they are in prison and keeping them on the premisis so the shooter can kill them even easier. the real answer to what the fences are supposed to do is to 1) put more effort into mental health stuff as that is often the main reason the shooter is doing it, and 2) teach kids to escape the school instead of teaching them to just kinda sit there. and before anyone replies taking about gun control, getting illegal stuff isn't that hard (see drugs), making guns isn't that hard (see luty submachine gun, or any 3D printed gun), and schools (including the entire campus) are already gun-free zones and have been for a long time. making things illegal does not stop people from getting them. the solution is to make people with mental conditions that make them dangerous to others get help, and to make the drills we already do better by teaching kids what will work, not what sounds nice.

The school I went to for years one through six here in Sweden had a mostly fenced yard, it was a large yard, with football fields, a grass field, several swing sets, a zip line, exposed sewer pipes, wooded areas, stone staircases and more.

It had a low fence that had several unguarded entrences/exists that were completely open, there was no control of if any student left the yard, but it very seldom happened.

In years 7 through 9, we had no school yard as sutch, sure, there was a small, mostly paved area that belonged to the school and was a yard, but no real fencing.

In year 10 through 13 "gymnasiet" there was zero fencing, and no one cared if you left the school area on your breaks.

FEMA has plans to utilize schools as mass holding pens for something like 5 million people if necessary, so its like a dual use thing.