School Security: Why Safety Doors & Locks Aren’t Enough to Protect Students

Years of coping with school shootings in the U.S. have resulted in a variety of security measures to prevent and defend against active shooters at educational institutions. Across the country, public and private school systems, colleges and universities have implemented security policies designed to protect students, faculty and staff.

These policies may look slightly different between schools, but there’s one problem with all of them…if they aren’t followed and enforced every day, all day, they won’t be effective when it matters.

School security starts with access control.

The first line of defense in school security is access control — preventing an unauthorized person from gaining access to school buildings or other campus locations. Many school safety policies start with door security for good reason. We’ve seen new school door security devices and access control systems for school campuses crop up:

• Exterior security doors for schools – Bulletproof glass, armored doors and steel construction with ballistic protection
• Interior classroom safety doors for schools – Security features designed for lockdowns, fire and severe weather conditions
• Safety door locks for schools – rapid door locking devices and barricades to prevent forced entry

As ingenious and sophisticated as these school safety devices and doors may be, they all rely on one thing: doors remaining closed and locked.

Tactical glass can stop a bullet, but if the door is propped open, a dangerous intruder can walk right by it.

Armored doors and locking devices are not enough.

A school’s safety and security policy likely requires doors to remain locked. However, this is easy to state and difficult to enforce. A school resource officer or other staff member may be tasked with checking doors, among a myriad of other responsibilities. This means door checks can be easily overlooked or forgotten. Additionally, students or staff may be guilty of propping doors open for easier access, unwittingly introducing a significant security threat.

This vulnerability is precisely why Life Check Systems has focused on school doors as an area of improvement for enhancing school security.

 

 

A simple, effective, affordable solution to school door security.

To address the problem of unlocked doors, Life Check offers a proactive school security technology and access control solution that ensures school doors are locked on schedule and stay locked.

School administrators can set their own security policies for door checks. Then, if any door is not checked on schedule, Life Check immediately alerts supervisors by phone call, text and email.

The simple system includes three basic components:

1. Small NFC location tags are mounted at every door and sensitive area that should be monitored. Doors, windows, perimeters, parking lots, bathrooms, storage areas, gates, sports areas, outbuildings and other areas can be tagged.
2. Administrators use the online dashboard to customize settings, monitor activity, and generate reports.
3. Authorized personnel use the app on a specific Life Check smartphone to tap the assigned location tags and document that every door is closed and locked. Supervisors get alerts if a door check is close to being missed.