Improving Safety and Security at Open-Campus Schools Overcoming the Challenge of Multiple Classroom Buildings

After starting a new job as director of facilities and construction for a school district in the San Francisco Bay Area, I recognized my greatest challenge: strengthening intruder prevention at our 1950s- and ’60-era school sites to exceed national standards established since the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School.

The 18 vintage campuses within the mid-sized San Lorenzo Unified School District, located between San Jose and Oakland, all have multiple classroom buildings connected by open-air walkways. They were designed to take advantage of the region’s mild Mediterranean climate, with the disadvantage that anyone could freely enter and traverse school grounds.

Fortunately, my background as an engineer had prepared me for this challenge. Before joining the San Lorenzo district, I designed and improved facilities for the U.S. Department of Defense, including military bases within Afghanistan. While it feels ironic to compare military security to the safety of American schoolchildren, we sadly understand why such a comparison is no longer that farfetched.

Ensuring the safety and security of San Lorenzo’s 8,500 students and hundreds of teachers and other staff is my highest priority. Not only was this a primary objective of bond measures that voters approved for school modernization, but it also was a clear message from our principals and community advisory groups. As a parent myself, I understand how essential it is to maintain a safe learning environment.

Over the past few years, the San Lorenzo district has spent millions of dollars to design, purchase and complete extensive security upgrades. These include barriers, video intercom systems, intermediate access control, electronic locks, and the ability to complete a one-click lockdown at all nine of our elementary schools. We have undertaken comparable work at our middle and high schools, adult school, and center for independent study.

Controlling the perimeter

One of our main focuses has been on securing the perimeter of our campuses. While adding fencing and other barriers might appear to be a low-tech approach, they are essential to any effective school security strategy. We've worked to incorporate central building structures into our perimeter fencing in order to provide a clear path of travel to the main entrance. We've also replaced low fences with eight-foot fencing, as well as incorporated hard-to-climb designs and self-locking gates that can only be opened from the inside or with a mechanical key.

Managing the gateway

Another objective was to limit public entry to a single door while closely controlling who has access through other doors. Before our current security initiative, the main entry doors at our schools were open to the public during school hours. Now, these front doors are locked at all times except for brief periods at the beginning of the day, when school staff are supervising who is coming inside. After that, all visitors must be buzzed in, including parents.

Throughout the school day, a main-office staff member is assigned to monitor a buzzer that signals when someone is seeking to gain entrance. They can see the person on a video screen – and often through a window as well – and determine via the intercom whether it is safe to momentarily disable the exterior lock and let them in. Some of our schools also have a video intercom at secondary entrances for preschool or special education, where staff can recognize their parents.

Where practical, we have added a third layer of security by creating an enclosed lobby area adjacent to the main entrance that also has electronically-controlled double doors, preventing an intruder from reaching classroom areas even if they succeed in forcing their way past the main entrance. We have installed these same double doors at the ends of corridors, allowing us to quickly close off those spaces in an emergency.

At the classroom level

An obvious core layer of school security, and the one that has gotten the most attention following tragic shooting incidents, is the entry door to each classroom. In our elementary schools, each main classroom entry is equipped with an electronic lock that engages whenever the door is closed. With the push of a single “emergency” button in the main office, card-key access to these doors can be disabled in a lockdown, preventing anyone from getting inside without a mechanical key. The same is true for interior double doors.

But preparing to install these locks in older schools can be like opening Pandora’s box. Some classroom doors are 50 years old and not built with the capacity for an electronic lock. We can’t expect to install a lock costing about $3,000 on a $200 door. And when we replace a door, we must also consider wiring that goes through the door frame adjoining walls – or the use of an internet-controlled wireless lock. All of this increases the complexity, and the expense, of connecting classroom locks to each school’s electronic and cabling networks and the district’s entire security management system.

Final barrier: a security mindset

I am confident that as we complete installation of these same security measures in our middle and high schools, the San Lorenzo Unified School District will continue to assess and review the systems now in place at our elementary schools.

But another effort that I have yet to mention must also continue – the reinforcement of a security mindset among our administrators, teachers, other school-site staff, and our families. The most sophisticated, high-tech system of safety and security can be undermined by a single wastebasket propping open a classroom door or a breakdown in communication at a critical moment.

Because our highest purpose is preparing students to achieve their life goals and contribute to a better world, the temptation may be to assume that the physical security measures I have outlined here will take of themselves. But we must maintain a culture of safety and never let down our guard. Our students’ lives may depend on it.

Dr. Danish Behrooz is director of facilities and construction for the San Lorenzo Unified School District in San Lorenzo, Calif. He holds master’s and doctorate degrees in engineering from Clemson University and a bachelor’s in engineering from Kabul University.