We viewed a property this past weekend just across the street from the high school my father attended back in the 50s. The school suffered coming into the 70s with race riots, budget cuts and such. By the 80s, it was considered an academically underachieving school. By the 90s, I think it was, it had become ringed with treacherously high fencing that made it impossible for one to come and go freely during school hours. Looking at it, I can't tell if the fence is meant to keep creepy people out, or keep pupils in. -probably both.
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| Fencing rolls open during morning and afternoon hours. |
Back to the propery--it boasted a lovely, tiled bathroom from the 20s. Most of the room was still original and still in decent condition. The shower stall had this rather bright light in it that looked like it would have been more at home on a back deck, or something. I though it looked a bit funny, so I snapped a pic.
I was en route to the train after a lunch date with a pal when this scene unfolded just outside the station: two undercover cops were doing goodness-knows-what with this man. What's sort of amusing is that their plainclothes garb and backward caps resemble a uniform. They also look like they might have been going to a sporting event. Of course, the sidearm sort of gives them away. I have no idea what the dude did to deserve being cuffed. He was compliant, however, and all seemed fairly calm. I'm not sure why I was compelled to take a photo. Maybe it was the sight of the plainclothes dudes. One rarely sees them. Out of frame was a highway patrol officer just sort of hanging out by his car. -really don't know why he was there. I have noticed that for every incident involving a single civilian there are multiple cops on scene. It seems a bit overkill, no pun intended.
Both the light in the shower and the school fence are quite weird.
ReplyDeleteRight?! I think so, too.
DeleteSmiling at the plainclothes uniform.
ReplyDeleteScratching my head at the other two. Until very recently none of our schools had fences. And I don't think any of them have fences like that one.
I call it the 'fuck off fence'. It looks way more imposing in real life. :(
DeleteThat is indeed a very prison-looking school.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is the norm here in the states now. It may be a response to the rise of school shootings. Pretty grim.
DeleteThey put the fencing up at schools just shortly after I graduated. It was a bit for keeping out drug dealers, a bit for not allowing students off campus during school hours. Although, the students have learned to hop the fence.
ReplyDeleteAll the schools in my area have such fencing. Most of the adults on campus have keys. (There's only one school where they don't give me a key for the day when I'm there.)
I met one young woman who attended the school in the above photo in the mid-2000s. She told me that when one needed to go to the lav, an adult escort was mandatory. I couldn't figure out how this kept them safe from harm.
DeleteI've watched that multiple officer phenomena for at least the last ten years, here in Akron, Ohio. I'm not in pedestrian stop areas often, but cars stops on the freeway always seem to involve two cars. How sad. Sure not like the old days, when my brothers told stories of "getting across the high level bridge" and waving goodbye to cops in another jurisdiction. I always wanted to call them out on it; never did. Far too late now.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think the 'too many cops' phenomena is country-wide at this point.
DeleteThere’s was a fence around the elementary school my children attended when we moved here in 1973. I thought of it as safety to keep little ones in the playground area from wandering away or running into auto traffic, keeping most thrown or kicked balls inside for older kids who might also thoughtlessly run after errant ball. Likewise, a fence around the rest of area to allow the privacy of surrounding residences on that and other streets though houses in our city all have walls or fences of their own between and behind their homes. I think all of our schools then and now have been like that.
ReplyDeleteGood points, Joared, thank you. I'm probably the age of your children, having started school in the mid-70s. At my first school, there was short, cyclone fencing separating the sport field from the backyards of neighboring homes. We could hop over it, no problem, to retrieve an errant ball, if needed. The high school from my dad's youth, however, is now fenced in all the way around. I attended a bunch of schools throughout my childhood and none were sort of walled off by exceedingly high fencing. 'Open campus', too, has been rescinded at many high schools. Many kids can no longer go off campus during lunch.
DeleteI really think that the very prohibitively tall fencing came about in response to Columbine and various other school shootings.
Probably there is much more restriction on school campuses with physical structures now. In the fifties we weren’t allowed to go off campus once our public school day started at a rural school from grade school through high school In the south — no fences there then. Don’t know what the campus would be like now.
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