Posted on 06/23/2022 2:43:04 PM PDT by conservative98
The Uvalde massacre began after the 18-year-old gunman entered the school through a door that could only be locked from the outside then got inside a classroom that had a busted lock, experts testified Tuesday.
Securing doors has long been a focus of school safety drills, and the inability to do so during the May 24 attack that left 19 children and two teachers dead is raising alarms among experts and politicians.
When doors are not secure, “your first step, your first line of defense has now been eliminated,” said Ken Trump, the president of the National School Safety and Security Services.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt said unlockable doors make lockdowns and shooter training worthless, adding that there was “zero obstacle to the shooter.”
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WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE GUNMAN REACHED THE OUTSIDE DOOR?
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Nearly a month after the rampage, Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, further amended what his agency’s investigation shows: The teacher did close the door, but unbeknownst to her, it could be locked only from the outside.
The gunman “walked straight through,” McCraw said Tuesday in blistering testimony at a state Senate hearing in Austin.
Ronald Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center, said he was “astonished” that the exterior door could only be locked from the outside. He likened it to a house that could only be locked from the outside.
“Shouldn’t the security of the school be as safe as the security of your home?” he asked.
Experts did not explain during the hearing why the school’s exterior door locked from outside. Robb Elementary is an older building, constructed in 1955.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
“But never forget that the cause of all this was the lunatic himself”
I am not certain of that.
“So much stupid going around that day.”
************
And cowardice it was shameful. The conduct of the police on-site was shameful. Every police officer from here on out should be required in their swearing in and taking their oath should vow to run to gunfire and engage any perpetrator immediately to protect a civilian.
Or maybe if the oh so brave and courageous sheriff’s dept. had done their duty to stop him starting fights.
The trouble is, there are several federal court rulings including USSC that the police have no obligation to do so
The trouble is, there are several federal court rulings including USSC that the police have no obligation to do so
Which exactly how this door worked and why it didn’t automatically lock. It had been hexed into the unlocked position and this wasn’t the only unlocked exterior door that day.
The cherry on top of the entire mess.
Every door that the shooter tried was unlocked.
Every door the authorities tried to open to get him was unlocked. They just didn’t try as hard as the killer did.
You don’t think the killer could have shot thru a window or gone thru a window?
Sure a locked door might have helped, but not 100%.
If you put turn or push button locks on the interior of school doors, kids will use them for pranks. Before school shootings were a thing, school doors only unlocked from the exterior side with a key and were simply left unlocked all day.
Many school districts have been too cheap to do basic upgrades to a double sided keyed deadbolt system (locks/unlocks with a key on both sides of the door. They just told the teachers to lock the doors after all the kids are in the room, and it was routinely ignored due to the inconvenience.
Not that it mattered, because all the doors (interior and exterior) had unreinforced glass windows in them or next to them, so the shooter could easily shoot the glass and open the door.
So until they replace all doors with panic bar type doors that don’t have a hex wrench mechanism and with bullet proof windows, all their plans and policies are just theater.
If you don’t plan for idiots, idiots will defeat your plan.
How could the USM possibly do that when the 911 calls were pleading with the operator for help?
That this door was unlocked is probably a security/policy violation. Most schools lock all exterior doors and force visitors to enter through the main entrance.
There are over 500,000 yellow school busses full of kids traveling twice a day in America.
You get the point. Some risks cannot be managed, evil cannot be stopped 100%. Locking down schools is great but....
From the article: “Experts did not explain during the hearing why the school’s exterior door locked from outside. Robb Elementary is an older building, constructed in 1955.”
I suspect we will find that in 1955, the doors were designed to be locked at the end of the day when everyone left.
The door could only be locked from the outside ... could only be unlocked from the outside ... nonsense, they are just throwing stuff out to see if will stick. Why would the teacher prop the door open with a rock if it could only be locked from the outside? BSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!
I’ve seen doors equipped with panic hardware that could be opened electrically by a keycard access system, via a reader installed on the exterior. Some solenoid inside the panic bar would basically pull it down to retract the latch.
Think the building I worked at 20 years ago had doors like this.
And furthermore, if one of those doors was propped open, security would come to investigate since they got an alarm that the door was open too long.
Do you really think that between 1955 and 2022 the door lock hardware was never replaced or upgraded?
You are correct that there are other targets they could choose if we make schools more difficult. So what?
School doors can be upgraded so as to remove most of the idiot factor. It’s a damn sight better than red flag laws, which are nothing more than a camel’s nose in the never ending attempts to disarm us.
brianl703 wrote: “Do you really think that between 1955 and 2022 the door lock hardware was never replaced or upgraded?”
Replaced? Yes. Upgraded? Perhaps not.
I can imagine that when a lock was replaced, it was replaced with a like item.
Never underestimate stupidity.
I am against electronic locks with code pads or keycards. Shooters are internet junkies that would find ways to hack them.
They are much less likely to have lockpicking skills so keyed doors are best and the keys need to work from both sides of the door.
It’s simple and the fact that it’s not done in most schools tells you they aren’t serious and security is mostly theater, just like the TSA.
Possibly...
However, after prior school shootings, there is no excuse for any school having not upgraded their security - especially basic things like functioning locks.
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