Securing school buildings' exteriors takes on added importance after Sandy Hook shootings
The Community High School doors facing Division Street are now kept locked all the time. Locking the doors is one of the security measures Ann Arbor Schools have instituted after the December school shootings in Newtown, Conn.
Daniel J. Brenner | AnnArbor.com file photo
Some students arriving for class at Ann Arbor's Community High School have found the exterior doors leading from Division Street locked in recent weeks.
The new policy, part of additional safety measures taken since the December shootings Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., has caused some consternation for some. “They’re used to being dropped off there and going to class, but they have to change their routine and walk around to where it’s monitored," said Ann Arbor Public Schools spokeswoman Liz Margolis.
“Has it created some inconvenience? Probably. But, these policies are what we feel are best to meet our goals.”
The Ann Arbor district, along with others in Washtenaw County, is reviewing its security procedures, including its policies regarding building exteriors, in the wake of the shootings that killed 20 students and six educators Dec. 14.
In Ann Arbor, administrators have put an emphasis on locking exterior doors. One day, that led to rumors of a possible lockdown at Pioneer High School. But Margolis said the district was just enforcing an already existing policy.
She said officials are now fine-tuning their security policies at the rest of the district’s school buildings, including locking many more doors than before.
“We’re assessing what it would take and what it would mean to lock all of our doors,” Margolis said. “What kind of access would we use, a buzzer, a keypad? What would the costs be? We are in the stages of assessing that.”
AnnArbor.com spoke to local districts about their building security policies as part of MLive Media Group’s series on school safety.
Some districts, such as Ypsilanti Public Schools, have explicit board policies for how the exteriors of school buildings should be protected. Others, like Ann Arbor, have more general policies leaving the protection of schools to building supervisors who have to maintain their building’s safety inline with district procedures.
School safety series
Stories from MLive Media Group’s investigation into school safety drills:
- Michigan school safety flaws: MLive investigation finds corners cut and laws made to be broken
- Code Red: Read a digest of MLive’s school safety series and how the investigation was done
- See how well your school conducts emergency drills; what to look for in Michigan’s mandatory records
- Some Washtenaw County schools break state law by not complying with safety drill requirements
- Michigan colleges and universities given pass on lockdown drills; wide confusion exists on other drills
- U-M doesn't follow letter of the law on drills, says other safety measures are more effective
In AAPS, that can mean some new constraints that might irk some students, like the recent policy change at Community.
Margolis said the school is locking all doors save for the ones that lead in from the parking lot. The Division Street doors are now locked at all times. “Students have been instructed not to open that door for anybody,” Margolis said.
Other school districts have given their superintendents the ability to take more extreme measures than just making sure buildings are locked down.
At Ypsilanti Public Schools, policies established by the school board before the Sandy Hook shootings allow the superintendent to install metal detectors and video surveillance systems at schools. The superintendent is required by the board to give an annual update regarding surveillance and security programs in the district.
Sharon Irvine, executive director of human resources at Ypsilanti schools, said the school buildings have security cameras on the outside of their buildings but do not have the metal detectors allowed in the board policies. She said the security cameras are used often to review incidents.
“We have used them many times in part of making sure individuals know these surveillance pieces are operational,” she said.
Ypsilanti schools require all doors to be locked and visitors to use a buzzer in order to enter the building. Lincoln Consolidated Schools has a similar policy.
Lincoln superintendent Ellen Bonter said the safety of the outside of district buildings has always been a priority for her, dating back to her time as a principal. At one school in another district two members of the Secret Service were visiting her school and were not able to gain entry to the building because even the students refused to let the men in.
“They complimented me on the fact they had been to every door except the one they needed to go to and not even the children would let them in,” she said, laughing.
Teaching children who should and shouldn’t be in a building is important. District employees wear identification badges in Lincoln, which allow students to know who they are. In addition, the badges allow staff to be buzzed into some of the doors with electronic locks, she said.
Bonter said locking doors and teaching students not to open them is a good policy, even if it isn’t foolproof.
“It’s not going to stop someone with a gun, but it monitors who is coming and going,” she said.
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
sh1
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 10:36 p.m.
This might seem like a minor point, but soon the weather will be getting much warmer, and for most elementary schools, an open classroom door and/or windows are the only way to cool down a non-air-conditioned room. What will happen in June when the classroom temperatures are in the 90's?
BhavanaJagat
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 5:14 p.m.
The Problem of Safety at School Buildings: I am personally aware of all the entrance/exit doors of Ann Arbor School District's various buildings and the problems associated with them. The primary concern is that of burglars entering the building to steal electronic equipment. Very often, I had noticed that people gain access through windows and doors that are not properly secured and left ajar, or open. We have to consider the problem of fire or other emergencies when students have to exit from the buildings as quickly as possible. Compared to these risks, the risk of gun violence is less important, but may happen. Most such unfortunate events draw a huge concern and divert attention from the need for providing a cheerful, nurturing environment at our schools. I support the views shared by Liz Margolis; we have to be watchful, but it is more important for our kids to enjoy access and having fun while they get ready for their future. It is a reasonable, and balanced approach. Firstly, get those doors and windows locked after School hours.
Kyle Feldscher
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 4:22 p.m.
Here's a story that might be interesting to you folks. It's from Jonathan Oosting, an MLive colleague of mine, asking if more guns equal safer schools. Take a look. http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/03/do_more_guns_equal_more_school.html
napoleon
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 4:07 p.m.
These poor students now have to "walk around" to get in school like a few more steps? This must be devastating for them! I am asking A2 schools to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to have experts study how this may effect the students ability to succeed.
Tru2Blu76
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 3:58 p.m.
How many school buildings are there in the state, the nation? Multiply cost of security measures per school by number of schools to arrive at the total cost(s). Then: divide total cost of security measures by number of tax payers: you have your cost in added taxes to each tax paying citizen. Then: hold a referendum vote to get approval / disapproval of the added cost. Or: realize that Adam Lanza's shooting rampage last December sparked a nationwide reaction to ONE incident which came after a number of similar incidents over the past 20 years. Investigation by the NOVA and Frontline PBS documentary producers showed: there are more such incidents NEVER REPORTED BECAUSE THEY WERE PREVENTED. At least 100 more, according to those reports. What turned out to be the most effective determining factor in these success stories (never reported by news media)? Oh, it was having a healthy school environment where school administrators, teachers and the students themselves practiced open-mindedness as POLICY, inviting student input (aka, "gripes") and taking constructive action. Turned out: it was the pattern of behaviors of potential rampage individuals that became evident to everyone at those schools that allowed intervention BEFORE any attacks took place. If not for this simple psychological / social approach: we would be counting the number of dead children and teachers in the thousands. President Obama said, "If just one life can be saved by instituting these measures, we must do it." Only - he wasn't talking about proven successful methods taken from respected documentarians, he was talking about going back to proven unsuccessful gun controls applied to healthy, non-criminals (aka, adult U.S. citizens). Suggesting: it's wiser and more promising to look at what Science and accurate reporting says about a problem than it is to listen to and follow a politician promoting his Party's Ideology.
Bcar
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 5:35 p.m.
The NRA isn't against background checks. If you look at FACTS and not lib spin, you'll realize that the NRA proposed many years ago having all mental health records in the background check system... It was the ACLU/mental health lobby that put up a fight against that... We have proposed alternatives: allowing trained/vetted teachers to carry! Add mental health records, do gun show background checks (most actually already require this...). This should all be driven by facts and data. Look at places with massive gun control, Chicago for example, how's their gun crime rate doing? And look at other places/towns like the one in GA where every adult HAS to own a firearm, what is their crime rate? FACT is that violent crime rates DROP when law abiding citizens are allowed to carry guns... Sorry to inconvenience you with those pesky facts...
Lola
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 5:05 p.m.
All I ever hear from anti-Obama/pro-gun people is what's WRONG with the proposed gun control measures. Fine, you're entitled to your opinion. I have yet to hear any alternatives from you and your kind. And don't propose that more guns equal a safer society. That's the dumbest kind of rationalization I've ever heard. Come on, I'm waiting to hear something reasonable not something Wild West crazy. "he was talking about going back to proven unsuccessful gun controls applied to healthy, non-criminals (aka, adult U.S. citizens)" Aren't most rampage shootings perpetrated by individuals deemed to be healthy non-criminals prior to the event? People who subscribe to your ideology seemed to want guns out of the hands of criminals and crazies but at the same time are opposed to background checks. How then do you propose to keep the guns away from non-healthy criminals? Do you want them to volunteer that information?
Bcar
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 4:13 p.m.
BAM! nice post.
ummsw
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 2:50 p.m.
Locked doors may be barrier .. However yesterday a BB gun was brought into Pioneer, how did that happen?? I know it's under investigation..However as a parent I find that unsettling.
dotdash
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 2:27 p.m.
After 9-11 a lot of schools on the East Coast added security systems, including our elementary school. Parents had to buzz, be viewed on a video camera, state their reason for being there and then be buzzed in. This destroyed the sense of community around the elementary school which was a huge loss to the town. In Sandy Hook, locked doors didn't do any good. At least with our elementary schools, please consider that when you lock doors, you suffer a sure loss to the community; in exchange you get possibly no benefit at all.
dotdash
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 3:37 p.m.
I can only tell you that it changed the parents relationship to the school (and the school's role in the community) to have to buzz in, and all the other parents in the PTO agreed. In AA right now, parents are in and out of the school all day -- helping in libraries, reading to classes, helping out with parties -- and that is a great thing. Our best safeguard is people in the community knowing each other and being aware of who is where, not keeping everyone at arm's length. That's my small-city perspective.
beardown
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 3:19 p.m.
Maybe I am looking at this from a big city perspective, but all school doors should be locked, no matter what, and no unauthorized people should be in the school at any time. If locking doors at schools is hurting the community, then maybe it was not a strong community to begin with.
Dog Guy
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:51 p.m.
In 1950's Detroit teachers were adults and some carried handguns to protect the school.
beardown
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 3:16 p.m.
Do we really want to use any part of the last 60 years of Detroit history as a model for anything positive?
Ricebrnr
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:55 p.m.
The school or themselves first?
RuralMom
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:45 p.m.
Why is Sandy Hook even in the equation? Chelsea had it very own incident in December of 1993, that incident I realize came from within the building, however a threat is a threat. We shouldn't need more reminders to be safety cautious or reference other states, we've had our own issues right here front and center and its 20 yr anniversary is coming this year. The worst thing we could do is to forget or act like it hasn't happened in our own backyard.
Ricebrnr
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:41 p.m.
"It's not going to stop someone with a gun, but it monitors who is coming and going," she said. So it'll be helpful to identify the criminals after the fact...except we don't need that either since almost every single one kills themselves at the first sign of armed response. We'll already know who cuz they'll be laying there.
Jim Osborn
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:22 p.m.
Re-read the last sentence "It's not going to stop someone with a gun". All of this inconvenience for students and it is "not going to stop someone with a gun" I'm sure glad that my high school was not a locked down fortress with a false sense of security, and guards. It had 2,000 students. Keep guns away from the mentally ill.
sayzme
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 4:08 p.m.
Better background checks at gun shows specifically..
beardown
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 3:03 p.m.
"Keep guns away from the mentally ill." Yep, more background checks.
Andrew
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 2:12 p.m.
Inconvenience for students? Poor kids have to walk an extra 100 feet? Oh, no! Liz isn't claiming that this will stop someone who is hell bent on getting in the school, but it will slow them down a bit. Something is better than nothing. Why all the negativity?
A2anon
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:29 p.m.
exactly.
greg, too
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 12:37 p.m.
What a depressing country we truly have become if we require armed guards at our schools to protect our children from our own citizens. And what happens when a "madman" takes out the one guard? Then we will need two, then three, then a police battalion. Just to protect children who are trying to go to school? What's next, do we start arming the kids too? Oh wait, that's already been brought up before. I'll spare you the anti gun or pro background check rhetoric, but it really does put it all into perspective when we need to start arming schools to protect our children from ourselves. And I found it interesting that "a2comments" comment as getting thumbs downed. If administrators are not protecting our kids with whatever they have at their disposal, even if it is as simple as locking doors, they should be fired immediately with no severance and their records marred as much as possible. It is their first and most important job to protect our children. That comes before educated them. If they are not safe and the administrators fail to protect them, then the administrators need to be removed immediately. Anti or pro gun, I would think that would make sense to everyone.
Bcar
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 4:10 p.m.
Easy, because we'd be putting guns in the hands of vetted, moral, well trained and responsible people. We put guns in the hands of police, and guess what, they're also citizens! gasp! These people are not the ones who are the cause of all of this. Most gun violence is not caused by law abiding citizens with legal firearms, FACT.
beardown
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 3:03 p.m.
"Morals, Parenting, and Accountability. Oh, and the media as well for glorifying violence in the news and entertainment." Spot on. These are the reasons and failures that have put us in this situation. I agree 100%. But if these are issues, how is adding more weapons a solution? Are we 100% sure that those getting the guns are not influenced by the exact same things?
Bcar
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:15 p.m.
has to do with lack of: Morals, Parenting, and Accountability. Oh, and the media as well for glorifying violence in the news and entertainment.
A2anon
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 12:04 p.m.
This is ridiculous. The doors were locked AND there was a security system at Sandy Hook. You cannot prevent psycho people from creating harm this way. Leave the buildings as they were.
Bcar
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 4:46 p.m.
beardown, interesting that you mention the OR mall shooting... Did you know that this madman was stopped by a legal CPL owner confronting him with his own legally owned pistol??? thank you for proving my point ;) there havent been many school shootings regardless, and they havent been stopped by legal gun owners, bec legal gun owners follow the law of "gun free zones..."
beardown
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 2:57 p.m.
Bcar, please tell us when a an attempted school shooting was stopped with armed force. A couple weeks before Sandy Hook, a nutter went postal at a shopping mall in Oregon. A couple days prior, the mall workers were given training on what to do in the situation, which is isolate the shooter and get any victims secured ASAP. Oregon is a very gun happy state, much like Michigan, and the mall patrons simply and quietly followed orders and the loss of life was minimized. Any loss of life is horrible, but putting Rambo in schools is not the answer.
Bcar
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:58 p.m.
No Liz. What HAS been proven is that these people are ONLY stopped when armed resistance or police show up. Barriers may slow them down a few seconds, but not by enough time to make a difference.
Ricebrnr
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:39 p.m.
Liz Margolis , citations please
Liz Margolis
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:36 p.m.
It has been proven that the best protection is to create barriers. As many barriers as possible to intruders. Locked doors have slowed up intruders and saved many lives.
greg, too
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 12:38 p.m.
So dont change anything and just let a "psycho" walk right in? Brilliant plan.
Bcar
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 11:57 a.m.
What a bunch of idiots! Do they really think a locked door is going to stop a madman? They keep pointing to Sandy Hook...well OK, how about learning from their hard lessons learned? The Locked doors and a security system FAILED at Sandy Hook. A metal detector? Ok, so we get those, and it goes BEEEEEP, then what???? Surrender? The only way to stop a madman is with violence of action, fight fire with fire (preferably with even bigger fire ;) )
Andrew
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 2:18 p.m.
Bcar, nothing will 'solve the issue' of a madman trying to get in the school. Not guns or doors. But, this is still a good move by the district.
Andrew
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 2:16 p.m.
Why all the negativity? You seem to think that this is a BAD move by the district. Heaven forbid kids have to walk a few extra steps to get into a school that is a little safer.
Bcar
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:56 p.m.
Liz, these locked doors are a barrier, that can be defeated in under 5 seconds. With the lack of police funding and reduced number of officers, this added 5 seconds in response time wont do a thing.
Liz Margolis
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:40 p.m.
Locked doors create barriers. The more barriers the less lives lost. This has been proven at many of these tragic incidents. It may not prevent access but it slows down the intruder so law enforcement can arrive on site. AAPS has run intruder drills with law enforcement and has put what we learned into our safety plans.
Bcar
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:31 p.m.
I think he was in the parking lot and traded shots with them.
Craig Lounsbury
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:24 p.m.
But he also was not in the school at the time was he? wasn't he in his car in some "remote" location?
Bcar
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:11 p.m.
sounds good Craig. The one thing with Columbine was that the officer was told to NOT go after the BGs/go inside, he was to wait for SWAT... That school of thought was thrown out after Columbine...
Craig Lounsbury
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 12:31 p.m.
I believe there was an armed guard assigned to Columbine was there not? So not even that assures anything much. A single armed guard has no numbers advantage and the potential attacker has a surprise advantage. So maybe what every school needs is multiple armed guards.
Polecat
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 12:02 p.m.
Agreed, looking at that photo of Community High, all locking the door would do is make an attacker shoot out a window. There needs to be an armed guard in every school in America. There are plenty of retired cops and military that would do it for minimum wage or even volunteer.
Bcar
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 11:58 a.m.
Edit, I think locking the doors is a good thing, but it does not solve the issue they're trying to protect from.
A2comments
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 10:49 a.m.
It's months after the horrible CT incident. Doors should be locked at all schools with a monitor at the main door all the time. If policies are not being followed, administrators should be reprimanded or fired.
Ricebrnr
Wed, Mar 13, 2013 : 1:37 p.m.
And without bullet resistant doors or monitoring stations nor anyway to actually repel such invasions, the monitors have the privilege of dying first. How about a more comprehensive plan?