Columbine. Sandy Hook. Uvalde.
Those names and others quickly became shorthand for school shootings and the security challenges presented by horrors that make headlines. Every time, the questions come in a rush: Who was the shooter? What happened? Could anything have been done differently to protect teachers and students?
Against such a grim landscape, James Gammon goes looking for good news — and sometimes finds encouragement.
“In a recent school shooting in Georgia, the shooter got to a locked classroom and couldn’t get in,” says Gammon, CEO of the Door Security and Safety Foundation. He has 18 years of experience in building security.
“These individuals take the easiest route possible,” he says. “They won’t spend 20 minutes trying to open a door.”
Gammon is committed to improving security in schools. His foundation, in conjunction with the Door and Hardware Institute, recently rolled out a series of recommended guidelines designed to advance the understanding of security throughout the lifecycle of an architectural project.
The guidelines spell out three levels of door security:
“This is the first time we’ve drafted something for people to pick up and understand,” Gammon says, noting the lack of a national standard on security. “We want to take this beyond facility managers to teachers and parents. That’s what this is about. It’s a large-scale education campaign.”
An estimated 25 percent of public schools in the United States lack doors that can be locked from the inside, according to the National Center on Education Statistics.
Gammon understands how we got here — and that times have changed.
“A lot of schools were built long before shootings were so prevalent,” he says. “They just wanted to protect teachers’ equipment. (Student safety) wasn’t on the public’s mind.”
Pressure for meaningful change has arrived, Gammon says, from school superintendents demanding that safety codes adhere to a higher standard.
Complacency is an enemy of security, he says, adding that “a door can be defeated by a rock propping it open.” In the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022, the gunman entered the school through a door that could only be locked from the outside and then got inside a classroom that had a broken lock.
The Door Security and Safety Foundation has been working in its education efforts with the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools and also Safe and Sound Schools. The latter organization was founded by parents who lost children in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012.
Some educators have become very serious. Baltimore City Public Schools earmarked $50 million for an overhaul of school security that could amount to $6,500 per door.
“If there are 30 kids behind that door, it’s a steal,” Gammon says of the cost.
Door Security and Safety Professionals has a “Find a Pro” tab on its website (DHI.org) to help schools find certified door security and safety professionals.
Doug Carroll is a freelance writer based in Chandler, Arizona.
