This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal.
LANSING — When Steele Elementary school reopened in Mason last fall after significant renovations, classroom doors looked different. They not only had functioning locks, but mechanisms with visual indicators that show whether the door is locked.
When the deadbolt is engaged and the door is locked, a red indicator is visible to those inside the room. If the deadbolt is not engaged, a green indicator shows the door is unlocked.
Superintendent Gary Kinzer said the district is working to install similar locks at the rest of the schools in the district, with work starting this summer and likely running into the fall. They will replace less modern locks on classroom doors, he said.
Locks on classroom doors are commonplace in at least half the Lansing area’s largest school districts, according to data gathered by the Lansing State Journal in the wake of the mass shooting at Michigan State University on Feb. 13. MSU students and faculty were unable to lock doors when a gunman attacked Berkey Hall and later the MSU Union, prompting the college to begin installing locks across campus, including more than 1,300 doors to academic classrooms.
“We know the most significant factor in protecting students in active shooter situations are locked classroom doors,” Kinzer said. “Making sure that not only do we have well functioning door locks in all of our classrooms, which we already have, but we need a system where teachers and students know when doors are locked and unlocked.”
Classroom locks and other tools
The State Journal asked the 10 largest school districts in the region about school safety tools and measures they take in their district, ranging from locking systems to metal detectors. All of the school districts that fully responded − DeWitt Public Schools, Haslett Public Schools, Grand Ledge Public Schools, St. Johns Public Schools and Mason − have classroom doors that can be locked.
Lansing School District Superintendent Benjamin Shuldiner declined to comment on security measures within the region’s largest school system. Superintendents with Holt Public Schools, Okemos Public Schools and Waverly Community Schools did not respond. Grand Ledge schools offered limited information.
Haslett Superintendent Steven Cook said teachers keep classroom doors closed and locked during the school day. The district does not have an automatic lock system on classroom doors. It does have an automatic emergency lockdown system for doors on the outside of the district’s schools, he said. If a building needs to be locked down, the swipe card access system that staff use to enter the buildings only allows police and key personnel into the building, Cook said.
Teachers and staff in St. Johns keep classroom doors locked throughout the school day, Superintendent Mark Palmer said. Staff still can access locked doors using key fobs, he added. If a school goes into lockdown, he said all key fobs are disabled except for those provided to first responders and school administrators.
Mason’s Kinzer said he did not immediately know the exact costs of the locks, as they were part of an overall $13.5 million in renovations for Steele Elementary that was included in a $69.7 million proposal that voters approved in November 2017. The Sargent locks can be found in educational and healthcare facilities across the country, according to the company’s website.
The demand for door locks with indicators really began to grow around 2016, said Dave Higginson, director of business development for Sargent and Corbin Russwin, another lock company under the umbrella of Swedish firm Assa Abloy. As company officials traveled the country talking to customers, more and more said they wanted locks and the ability to see an indicator that confirmed they were locked.
It started with bathroom locks and then grew into classroom door locks, he said. It culminated in the development of the lock now found at Steele Elementary and other schools, universities, hospitals and even airports.
School safety took center stage for the New Haven, Connecticut-based company when a gunman killed 20 children and six adults on Dec. 14, 2012 a few miles away at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
The company has seen the number of locks and indicators they sell to schools increase over the last four to five years, Higginson said, though he did not have an estimate as to the total number of locks sold. It’s critical, Higginson said, to have locks that can be secured from inside the room without a key.
If schools have existing Sargent locks that were installed within the last 10 years, he said those locks can be retrofitted with the lock indicators for about $245. A new standard lock kit with the indicator starts at about $1,395, but Higginson said schools often receive significant discounts.
Ultimately, the cost per lock comes down to the competition for bids for the project, the amount of locks being installed and many other factors, he said.
“We take pride in being competitive and not gouging the end user,” Higginson said. “If they’re coming to us and looking to upgrade their openings, then we’re going to give them the opportunity to do that.”
Jason Russell, CEO of Secure Education Consultants, a Grand Rapids-based company that completes safety assessments at schools, said most schools he’s worked with have functioning door locks on classrooms, but the simplicity of how they function varies from school to school.
“The best-case scenario is something very simple, that doesn’t need a key,” he said, when asked about the importance of classroom door locks.
The locks being installed at Mason Public Schools are an example, he said. Simple deadbolt locks that can be quickly engaged with indicators that make it easy for a teacher to look across a classroom to confirm whether the door is locked.
Russell said those types of locks are becoming the standard in new schools being built. He’s heard of some schools adding secondary barricading devices for classroom doors that might not always be necessary.
“Really, you need a good lock on your door,” he said. The American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and Everytown for Gun Safety released a report in 2020 that recommended all classrooms have interior locking doors. Experts cited in the report said the security measures that prevent shooters from entering schools are the most effective. Interior door locks that teachers or students can engage from inside a classroom can help deter an active shooter who is able to enter a school. The locks not only protect students and teachers inside the classroom, but delay the shooter and give law enforcement extra time to respond to the school.
Preventing access from the outside
In St. Johns, the outside doors of each school building are locked with just one or two entry points available into buildings, Palmer said.
Visitors coming to a school will be met with a video and voice to-voice system. After pressing a button and providing their name, someone inside will choose whether to unlock the door and let them in.
DeWitt Public Schools Superintendent Shanna Spickard said exterior doors at the schools in her district are also kept locked with a system that identifies people who want to access the locked doors.
Grand Ledge Public Schools Director of Communications John Ellsworth declined to discuss locks and how they are used in the district. But he said the district uses the Raptor Visitor Management System from Houston, Texas-based Raptor Technologies.
Visitors must provide a government-issued ID and the system checks the ID against a national database to ensure no red flags or concerns for the person wanting to enter the school, Ellsworth said. The company that was founded in 2002 said it has worked with more than 5,000 U.S. school districts “to provide integrated visitor, volunteer, emergency management, safeguarding, and early intervention software and services,” according to its website.
In addition to its new locking indicators, the Mason school district also uses a video surveillance system throughout the school district, which Kinzer said is similar to those used in other school districts.
Limiting access into schools from the outside isn’t new, and many schools in the region have been doing it for years. But the policy isn’t universal and at least one area district has recently made changes.
In response to concerns over violence and misconduct at the district’s high school, East Lansing Public Schools initiated a series of changes to address school safety, including limited access to the building from outside doors.
Officials during public discussions revealed that East Lansing High School has 86 exterior doors, including some that were not monitored. Students spoke during the meetings and explained how some unmonitored doors would be propped open, allowing students and non-students to come in and out of the building.
Officials said they will fit all 86 doors with alarms and limit access into the school to two doors.
‘No one solution’
Secure Education Consultants’ Russell likened the best school safety plans to someone feeling sick and knowing they should go to a doctor first to get diagnosed and learn what medicines and treatments are needed.
“What we’re doing too often with school security is skipping the doctor and going right to the pharmacy,” Russell said.
That’s why Russell highly recommends school districts complete safety assessments to identify their strengths and weaknesses before making any significant investments into safety and security tools and resources.
The state has made funding available to help schools pay to hire firms, like Russell’s to complete safety assessments.
One of the most common weaknesses and gaps that Russell finds in his assessments of school safety isn’t in the physical security tools, like locks and camera systems. Rather, he finds gaps in school safety policy and procedures. Like installing cameras rather than hiring another school counselor or purchasing metal detectors instead of beefing up mental health support.
One of the most prominent shortcomings is in mental health support and resources for students, he said.
“We want to prevent kids from going down that path toward violence,” he said, adding that supporting student mental health could help stop them from going down that path.
An effective approach to school safety and security is a layered approach, Russell said. It has to include several pieces, including physical pieces, mental health resources, effective plans and procedures, relationships with law enforcement and a number of others.
“When there’s an incident, people want to see change overnight, but it really takes time to see what you’re doing is appropriate and not a knee-jerk reaction,” he said.
“No one solution is going to fix this.”
Education Week counted 51 school shootings in 2022, the most since the national education publication began tracking the incidents in 2018. So far this year, school tabulators at Education Week have counted 13 school shootings.
