Five Ways that Children Could be Safer in School
Five reasons why our children are not safe from Active Shooter Emergencies - (in order of importance.)
1) Parents, teachers, and students need to advocate for better school security. The only thing more dangerous than an active shooter is an inactive community. YOU need to advocate for your child's safety. Items 2-5 are some of the things that need to be changed. For the price of a morning coffee, parents can work together to protect their students and teachers.
2) Every post-shooting commission has concluded that a simple lock on a door slows the rate of kill during an active shooter event. Nothing compares to reducing loss of life like a lock on the door.
3) Billion dollar door companies and their lobbyists work to keep low-cost effective solutions off of classroom doors. Why? Their precious revenues are at stake. Believe it or not, these companies write regulations and building code to specify their own products. They do it in the name of "fire safety" yet no child has been killed in a fire in the last 50 years. Over 500 innocent people have lost their lives to active shooters since 2000. As a result of the confusion over restrictive building codes, schools can't afford the big-company, big-money hardware, so nothing gets done, leaving our children at risk. It is more likely that a person will get hit by lightning four times in one year than it is to be injured in a fire emergency while our door lock is locked.
4) A standard key does not work in an active shooter emergency. No matter how often door companies say that existing solutions are best for classroom doors, they are wrong. Don't believe them. Teachers will panic, understandably. They will lose all fine motor skills and that door will never be locked when it is needed most. If the door has a key, it should be disqualified as an effective active shooter defense.
5) All the training in the world won't lock a door if there's not a lock on the door. Training to run hide fight is great. But before you hide, you had better have a lock. Most schools are unprotected. Those who say they have suitable door locks and barricades have not studied exactly how long it takes and how difficult it is to lock under stress. Barricading a classroom door with furniture will not work if the door swings into the hallway! This is the vast majority of classrooms in the country. To be effective, the door lock needs to be simple, available, fast, and fit the school environment. Locking a door all day long is not a solution because it is too disruptive. Providing a lock accessible to anyone inside the classroom presents a different danger 365 days a year.
Unfortunately, this is the stark reality. Please feel free to contact us or one of our security partners. We can guide you on a variety of solutions to secure your school within your budget constraints. More schools and states are purchasing TeacherLock because we have a pragmatic and affordable solution. Together, we need to take on the billion dollar door lobby. www.teacherlock.com
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