Horace Mann prophecy watch

Horace Mann, generally regarded as the father of America's current public school system, once prophesied: "Let the Common School ... be worked with the efficiency of which it is susceptible, and nine tenths of the crimes in the penal code would become obsolete; the long catalogue of human ills would be abridged."

It hasn't quite worked out that way, of course. Not only have the crimes not become obsolete, they are now occurring in the schools themselves, schools which in many ways have become like prisons. Worse yet, none of this comes as much of a surprise anymore; it's just something "the kids feel like they have to get used to," as one parent told The Oklahoman.

"Metal detectors across the Oklahoma City School District are being inspected in the wake of a student's arrest Monday at U.S. Grant High School in an incident involving a gun in the building," The Oklahoman's Wendy K. Kleinman and Augie Frost reported today.

Students at U.S. Grant said after school Wednesday that security measures are more stringent since Hodauri Latifu McCoy Jr., 14, was arrested on a felony complaint of carrying a firearm in a school. According to a police report, he pointed a loaded gun at another student and threatened others.

"We weren't really surprised," junior Edgar Estrada, 17, said as he left the campus Wednesday.

"It's just kind of something the kids feel like they have to get used to," said parent Rebecca Owens, who has a son in the ninth grade at the school.