Enhanced college security; what about high schools?

Today the Washington Post on p. A18 highlights the recent discussion about college safety that has gotten more people thinking about security measures colleges will be taking. It’s good to see that colleges seem to be sparing no expense when it comes to installing sirens on cameras, simply adding more cameras, safety training, locks, and text-message alert systems. But the thing I’ve been wondering is what are high schools and middle schools doing to protect their students from shooters and the like? Are high schools adding the aforementioned security measures as well? Or are they just training students for how to go into lockdown or protect themselves?

For example, New Jersey legislators are planning to require colleges to submit security plans and CT Governor Rell is calling for a statewide meeting of colleges to discuss security. While these responses will likely help in the future, at least in terms of preparedness, where is the focus on protecting younger students? This will be an interesting issue to follow…

And in other news, this article in the NY Times discusses another way to protect our kids, albeit in a more indirect way than security measures. A report released by the Institute of Medicine recommended junk foods like chips, doughnuts, etc. be banned from elementary, middle, and high schools; Senator Tom Harkin (Iowa) is looking to add those recommendations to a bill that would require the Dep. of Agriculture to ban junk foods from public schools. This makes you wonder how much control the government should have over eating habits and whether there are other ways to tackle the childhood obesity issue.