For years, Cardozo High School operated under the designation in the New York City Department of Education as a random scanning school, where the NYPD could come “randomly” with school scanners at any time. However, after a recent incident where a student brought a gun onto school grounds, the police department has officially decided that Cardozo will become a permanent scanning school.
With this new designation, many people have mixed emotions. Students have argued that their daily routines have been interrupted entirely. It takes longer for students to get into the building and the addition of mandatory devices slows the entry process down further, with students having to remove iPads and laptops from their bags before going through the scanner. In addition, many students have to get “wanded” when they wear anything that can cause the scanners to go off, further slowing down the entry process.
Despite this, school authorities and police officials argue that the scanners are necessary after the Fall 2025 incident that made headlines across the nation. And, while the actions taken by the NYPD are to promote safety, the question remains: is school scanning actually keeping us safe?
Students argue that permanent scanning has made them feel uncomfortable, adds stress to the beginning of the school day, and that it does not really impact school safety overall.
Cardozo Junior Sofia Ali shared, “Though scanning can prevent intruders and inappropriate objects from entering the school, it does not eliminate the underlying threat of actual school incidents.”
In addition, Ali said that the problem with school scanning is that it takes a huge amount of time and effort, and the presence of the scanners themselves make students more “anxious” and feel less safe than they should be.
However, many students do believe that scanning being a part of our everyday lives is helping out in the long run. Junior Amanda Hafiz expressed her thoughts, stating “I do believe that scanning is keeping us safe, but the procedure is a lot more complicated than it should be, so it disrupts our morning schedules.”
Hafiz added that even with scanning, there are things that slide through the cracks, like when two students entered the campus in April, causing a school-wide hold.
“I feel like more measures should be taken about those situations as they could’ve brought in dangerous objects as well,” Hafiz added.
Even with the added pressures of morning entry, some students do see it as a benefit. Junior Claire Park felt that the trade off is worth it. “The lines can be annoying sometimes, but I would rather wait a few extra minutes than worry about someone bringing something dangerous to school,” Park said.
“I know a lot of students were nervous about safety after the incident in 2025,” she added. “I believe that scanners make people feel more secure because they know the school is making an effort to improve the safety of the staff and students.”
Despite there being multiple student opinions, the reality of the situation is that scanning will be part of our school community moving forward; whether people feel it helps, or not.
