School Securty Changles After Connecticut

This type of thing happens and happens and happens. Who will the school look out for as suspect? gangbanger looking boys in saggy pants, men with accents, fat women drinking a diet coke? Neither was the case in any of the 4 mass shootings since Columbine.

In ALL of the cases the men were the same ethnic group and could be college students living next door.

The lesson is to stop thinking of suspicius people as those who DO NOT look like you.

My kids school has always been kind of odd. They have the same system as the other schools in the district but were always laid back about it. Now they are actually looking at the camera before they buzz you in.

I'm with Windy City Mom.

It isn't progressive to turn going into a school into Checkpoint Charlie.
It isn't progressive to arm teachers or staff.
It isn't progressive to spend millions of dollars on hiring more armed guards or police or the military.

These things are a panacea, nothing more. Checking IDs against "nothing" is useless. Who is going to remember what someone's ID read later on?

I think it's important for many of our schools to carry on as usual. Have one way into a building during school hours. Have a staff member who is usually familiar with families posted there as part of their job. Have volunteers sign in, wear their IDs/stickers. We have to remember not to make the children feel *unsafe* in our shock and upset. We need our kids to know that in the big picture, these occurrences are usually rare and that they really are very safe at school.

In my opinion, we've got more fundamental problems to deal with right now in regard to keeping the public safe. The amount of money involved in creating schools which are garrisons to keep the kids secure would be a huge debt, and there would be obvious issues of economic inequity which would only cause more problems. Which schools can afford to arm or radically modify themselves? (biometric checks, fencing, security staff, arms training and procurement) Which can't? I don't see this as helpful. Sorry.

Nothing has changed, other than everyone being a lot more aware and on edge.
They have emergency drills (including earthquake, fire and "intruder" drills) and require all adults to check in AND out through the front office.
However all doors and gates MUST remain unlocked during school hours, due to the fire code.
I really hope your school's children are not going to be trapped inside, in case of a fire?
Also, what is to stop a gunman from opening fire on a single custodian, or parent volunteer at the front door? And then just as easily shooting his way through a door? That makes NO sense.
Sounds like they are just placating you.

I think those security measures are fine...... if they make people "feel better". But they wouldn't have worked in Sandy Hook. The school KNEW him. His mother was connected there.

Once again.... as with every freaking solution we come up with in America that doesn't actually address the ACTUAL issue..... this is a waste of time and resources.

Out schools have had locked doors as long as my kids have been in school (9+ years). At the high school, you can walk into the front doors but the second set of doors are locked, so you have to turn and go into the office to get anywhere. At the other schools, the exterior doors are locked and you either knock or hit the buzzer and someone inside remotely unlocks the door, letting you in. You then have to go to the office and state your business. If you're volunteering, you have to sign in and wear a visitor's badge.

Since CT, the only change I've noticed is that when I dismissed my youngest early today, they didn't just buzz me in after I knocked. I had to state who I was and why I was there before they would buzz me in, which is fine by me. We did get a notice from the superintendant stating that on Sunday, the school principals, assistant principals, superintendant, police and fire departments met to review safety plans. They stated that they have had lockdown plans in place already and that although they don't do them with the students, the teachers and staff are already trained. They added that they will make further changes to tighten things up more but that they would not release the details of their plans to the public, which makes sense to me. No need to advertise to a would-be assailant what your response times and emergency plans are or where all of the hiding places are. That said, I do hope that they eventually do some kind of drills with the kids, along the lines of fire drills, so they understand the importance of following directions in an emergency very carefully.

ETA: The middle school and high school students and staff have always had to wear their IDs on a lanyard at all times. No ID means you don't belong in the building. In the younger schools, they are now requiring all staff to wear their ID at all times as well.

And I have to add that they would NOT have let in a guy wearing body armor and carring three guns, including a rifle. Let's be reasonable. The security measures in place absolutely saved lives. That he had to blast his way through the front door instead of just waltzing in silently gave early notice for someone to turn on the PA system and call the police. The noise of those shots and the PA gave the teachers and staff a few extra seconds, minutes, who knows, to lock their doors and hide the students. Hidden students in one classroom escaped slaughter, and he killed himself when the police arrived. Given the speed with which he worked and the amount of ammunition he had, every second counted. It didn't prevent 26 students and staff from dying, but it did save perhaps dozens or hundreds more.

I'm not sure if my daughters school changed any of their security. Honestly, unless they have an armed guard checking everyone in, no security would have prevented what happened. The guy shot open the locked door to get in.

turning schools into detention centers will not stop every possible incident perpetrated by a madman. any more than airport security will stop every bomb.
freedom is dangerous.
but it still beats submissive cowering and endless barn-door bandaid measures that are far more about making people 'feel good'.
rather than having a parent volunteer to be the sitting duck at the front door next time, we should be addressing mental health issues. and how to make our kids confident, empowered and realistic instead of either 'safe' or 'terrified', neither of which is remotely rational.
khairete
S.

They are going over security procedures.
All schools over here have someone sitting at the main entry point with a system that checks you against a data base of sexual offenders then if you pass, it prints out a picture ID name sticker for you to wear while you are in the building.
It won't do squat if anyone shoots it.
Basically they will pretend to make changes and we'll pretend they make us feel better.
A school has many doors - you need them in case of fire for evacuation.
You can't have a guard sitting on every door all the time and they are easy to shoot through.
Don't get me started on portable classroom trailers.
They don't even put bricks between students and projectiles.
But no one will get rid of them.
Thousands of them are out there because they are cheaper to rent than it is to build real buildings.
School budgets are busted as it is - they don't have money for more/better security.

I've thought about this a lot at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Lisa, since reading that the principal had just changed their security protocol. Their door was locked. The guy didn't even try to buzz in - he broke into the area. I believe, if I am understanding right, that he shot the glass open and shattered it in order to gain access.

I was also thinking of our high school that has double doors - the outer ones, and then the inner ones. You buzz, the staff member (different staff members man that desk different parts of the day) sees you, and buzzes you into the outer doors, and then you come through the inner doors and have to sign in. You have to show your driver's license and you also need to be in their "system" - they have to match, too, because their system searches for people who are sex offenders or criminals. (Isn't that something!) You get a visitor name tag printed out that shows you are in their system, and then they call the person you want to see, who gives the green light for you to come in. If you don't have an appointment, you don't get to go. You are escorted through the school to your appointment as well, so that you aren't wandering around the school.

Lots of rigamarole to go through. However, in Sandy Hook's case, it wouldn't have made any difference. For our school, the person sitting in the front (it was usually a guy, sometimes a woman), would have been a sitting duck for a shooter. He would have blown the glass out and gone through the second set of doors and shot the person, and then gone where he wanted to go.

I think that they would have to have a transparent wall that is bullet proof and a way for the parent volunteer or staff member to check someone while still behind the bullet proof wall. Do any schools have those?

No easy answers, sigh...

Dawn

I am not aware of our school doing anything differently. The front door has always been locked as soon as the last child enters the school.
I don't want to burst anyone's bubble but what a false sense of security your kid's school is providing. The shooter in CT was not let into the building. He forced his way in. When confronted by the Principle and School Counselor he murdered them. Sorry, but a parent volunteer nor the custodian sound like much of a deterrent to me against a mad man.

We've always had to be buzzed into the schools in our area. All exterior doors are locked. Once buzzed in, you have to stop by the office to sign in and get a a name tag. Again - that has always been the case.

The only new procedure that I'm aware of is you need to state your purpose when signing in (volunteering in art or LRC, visiting the classroom or lunchroom).

I work at the elementary school during lunch and recess and even though the kids are allowed in through certain doors when recess is over, we never allow visitors in those doors. We have always directed them to the office.

before the shooting our school was on soft lock down, all doors locked except for the front door by the office and all class room doors locked. NOW they are putting in a buzz in system and an ID scanner and 15 new security cameras. I think it's ridiculous. There's already only one way to get in. It's likely be cheaper to just post an armed security guard by the front door than to put in that new system and by the new computers. Seriously what office personnel is going to have time to buzz in every parent that comes to the school? They are going to have to hire new staff just to do this.
That is not going to keep someone from bringing in a gun. All they have to do is put it in their jacket. They aren't searching everyone that comes in.

My son is in 9th grade. He told me that they announced that they now had to show their ID (school issued) within 30 seconds of being on campus (exiting the bus, or entering a door basically).

They already had a locked down school pretty much. Once you enter the main door (where you have to check in at the office/reception) there is a locked barrier that they have to buzz open for you to get in. You don't go in it anyway if you are just there to pick up a child. They send for the student and you wait OUTSIDE the locked doors, in the foyer area. They even provide a small bench/couple of chairs on either side of the area for your "comfort". Directly across from the office where they can see you (keep an eye on you).
I guess if you have a meeting with guidance or something, they buzz you in at the appropriate time, but you have to show ID and someone has to confirm it's ok (whomever you are there to meet I presume, if you don't have a scheduled appointment). I've never had to do that, so I'm not really sure.

ETA: It's interesting that someone mentioned the doors being open due to a fire code. I am pretty sure that at my son's school, all the "extra" exterior doors open from the inside, but you cannot open them from the outside without a key. It took my son an extra 10 minutes to get to the front office the first time I tried to pick him up early, because he went the shortest route (that skirted the bus port and had "off campus" access) from one building to another (rather than use the "interior" route from one building to another), and he couldn't get in. He knocked a few times and was made to go to another entrance, and his ID was checked and everything.

Well ours was the same, all doors locked except the front door and the you had to go through the office to enter the rest of the school. Now the front door is locked and there is a doorbell with a camera, that they have always had but I guess it was broken for awhile. Now its fixed! You have to state your name and your childs name to get in.

On Monday there were police at every door. Since then, I haven't seen anything different. No police, no changes. Everything went back to the way it was before. We do have locked doors with the door bell, but that's about it (it's always been that way). They do not check ID's or even check to see who rings the door bell. So, I don't feel any safer than I did before

We have a set of double doors. All doors except the front were always locked. The front door was and is unlocked. Someone in the office would have to buzz you through the second set of doors - no change. Of course she sits behind a little glass window that would be no security challenge at all for anyone. I do not know if there is a panic button somewhere in the office. I would hope and assume so as so many businesses have them.