How Can We Protect School Entries?

  • By Bruce Czerwinski
  • 03/01/18

The best way to protect a campus entry is simple—lock the doors. And keep them locked. Locked doors are a very effective barrier to criminals, from burglars to active shooters.

Open a student entry 30 minutes before classes begin. Then lock the door. Keep it locked until students leave at the end of the school day. Designate one door for faculty and staff but add a basic access control system with a keypad or card reader so the entry stays locked.

Also, don’t overlook the doors themselves. They should be made of solid core wood. There’s no need for expensive anti-ballistic metal doors. But if you have glass doors fortify them with security film or metal screening. Both will help delay even an armed criminal until first responders can arrive.

Quality doors and locks are critical to keeping bad people out. But you probably have many parents, volunteers and other visitors who have a good reason to come in. Video intercoms are made for this. Mount a door station outside the single designated visitor entry. Visitors push a button to buzz a master station, typically on the desk of the receptionist and/or school resource officer. They make decisions when to open the door only after seeing and talking with visitors.

Video intercoms also help control a practice known as piggybacking, where other people sneak in with those already approved. Intercom cameras also let staff see people loitering around the entry. Another video intercom mounted at the delivery door provides a quick entry method for food service and other vendors

Here’s one more important security tip. Equip all classroom doors with locks that can be locked from the inside. No student behind a locked classroom door has been shot during all U.S. active shooter incidents.

This article originally appeared in the School Planning & Management March 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

About the Author

Bruce Czerwinski serves as U.S. general sales manager for Aiphone Corp. He is a 13-year veteran of the company, a manufacturer or security video intercoms. For more information, visit the website at www.aiphone.com/home.

Featured

  • Three U.S. Universities Install Acre Security Access Control Platform

    Cloud-native physical and digital security solutions company Acre Security recently announced that it has deployed its access control platform at three major universities in the U.S., according to a news release. Acre partnered with Atrium Campus to provide coverage for more than 69,000 students at the University of Virginia (UVA), George Mason University, and Rockhurst University.

  • Photo courtesy of Spiezle Architectural Group, Inc.

    West Melbourne School for Science Completes Expansion Project

    The West Melbourne School for Science, which serves students grades PreK–6 in West Melbourne, Fla., recently completed a 12,450-square-foot elementary school expansion, according to a news release.

  • How One School Reimagined Learning Spaces—and What Others Can Learn

    When Collegedale Academy, a PreK–8 school outside Chattanooga, Tenn., needed a new elementary building, we faced the choice that many school leaders eventually confront: repair an aging facility or reimagine what learning spaces could be. Our historic elementary school held decades of memories for families, including some who had once walked its halls as children themselves. But years of wear and the need for costly repairs made it clear that investing in the old building would only patch the problems rather than solve them.

  • Elevating Campus Maintenance: How Power Wash Drones are Transforming Educational Facilities

    As today’s campuses grow larger and more architecturally complex, keeping exteriors clean, safe, and inviting has never been tougher. Facilities leaders are under constant pressure to stretch budgets, meet safety standards, and support sustainability goals—all while tackling the stubborn challenge of exterior cleaning.