AZ Schools Lock Students In, Break Fire Safety Laws

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Some schools in Arizona are attempting to keep bad guys out by locking students IN.

In some districts in the state, officials are putting up fences and gates – without permits – but what they are doing to the school doors is far more disturbing.

The schools have been locking doors that would be used in emergency evacuations, thus trapping students in the building in the event of a fire or other life-threatening event.

Arizona State Fire Marshal Bob Barger told CBS 5 that too many schools are locking bad guys out and, in the process, locking children in:

“It’s probably been around the last six months that we caught up with the process of them actually locking the gates with chains and locks. People need to be able to get away. When you lock it and chain it, that egress pass is impeded, and they can’t get out, and you can’t get away,” said Barger.

Fire officials said they realize that schools must do their best to keep students safe, but breaking the law isn’t the way to do it:

“We don’t want to create a situation where, because of security, we cause tragedy. Their hearts were in the right place, but we can’t allow security to interfere with safety,” said Assistant State Fire Marshal Frederick Durham.

Many schools do not have exterior doors that lock from the inside or bullet-proof windows. Some schools are resorting to locking doors with chains because they lack the funding to modify or replace existing doors.

At Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., gunman Adam Lanza shot out the front entrance’s windows to gain entry to the school. Locked doors didn’t stop him, and neither did other security measures the school had in place:

Prior to the shooting, Sandy Hook Elementary had regular lockdown drills, teaching students and teachers to stay quiet and out of sight, had instituted a sign-in procedure for visitors that required photo ID, and had installed security cameras outside the main entrance of a closed campus that locked its front doors after 9:30 a.m.

The Newtown school district spent 10 times more on school security training this year, ABC News reported. As its measures didn’t prevent Friday’s brutal attack, school officials and safety experts are debating whether current safety procedures are the best to follow in similar cases. Still, as the country mourns the loss of 26 innocent lives, the heroic acts of the school’s teachers and staff likely kept the incident from taking an even darker turn. (source)

In his report Post-Sandy Hook School Security: What the Experts Are Saying, Clint Henderson of security company 2MCCTV quotes 15 school security experts on what they think needs to change in order to keep America’s school children safe. The idea of using armed guards was popular:

Responses were unanimously in favor of School Resource Officers (SROs) on school campuses as an effective measure to increase school safety. An SRO can be loosely defined as simply a police officer assigned to, or based out of, a school campus.

The general consensus is that a uniformed, trained, skilled and armed School Resource Officer is one way to possibly thwart attacks from occurring in the first place because offenders are generally less attracted to targets with a high police presence.

Put simply by expert David Fullerton, “In many cases if a subject knows there is someone that might stop them, then they are hesitant in going to that location.”

Most of the experts interviewed were not in favor of arming school staff, expressing concerns about lack of training and experience with high-stress threat situations. However, at least one expert was open to the idea:

I think this is a matter of local concern as a school is a reflection of the local community and their values. If the local community understands the value and the risk involved and [has a] school staff that are willing to carry a weapon and take its responsibilities on, then it can be a good thing.

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey conducted in early August 2013 found “62 percent of with children of elementary or secondary school age would feel safer in their child attended a school with an armed security guard.”

An Arkansas school district decided to train and arm staff members earlier this year. Superintendent David Hopkins explained the decision:

The plan we’ve been given in the past is ‘Well, lock your doors, turn off your lights and hope for the best’. That’s not a plan.

Indeed, it isn’t a plan. Locking doors isn’t going to stop a determined lunatic from finding a way to enter a school, and may actually endanger students by preventing their escape during other emergencies.

Lily Dane is a staff writer for The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared. Her goal is to help people to “Wake the Flock Up!”