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 ...
We had locking doors on the classrooms back in elementary school, but it was figured out how to defeat them with the wires from our ski lift tickets.
eventually school figured it out and installed big plates so we could not easily get them open.
Sometimes like items are no longer available because they don’t meet building/fire codes anymore.
For example, try to buy a smoke detector that is hardwire AC powered only without a battery backup.
You can’t, now, but you could get them about 30 years ago.
And in many cases, when equipment like locks and smoke detectors are replaced, there is a legal requirement that they be replaced with equipment that complies with the building/fire code that is in effect at the time they are replaced.
That might mean that the door gets the panic hardware installed because that’s what the code required at the time the work was done.
“Why would the teacher prop the door open with a rock if it could only be locked from the outside?”
Let me womansplain for you.
She thought the door was locked and didn’t have her key on her when she ran out to get her lunch. So she propped the door open with a rock, the fact that a rock was readily available tells you this was a habit for most of the teachers. She had no idea the panic bar had been hexed into the unlocked position and not being mechanically inclined failed to notice the panic bar was in the unlocked position when she pulled the door shut.
Even if she had realized, she may not have had a hex wrench to re-engage the locking mechanism or time to use it.
The more interesting thing is that they haven’t said who hexxed the panic bar down in the first place? They must know, was it the school resource officer?
“Unlocked doors were ‘first line of defense’ at Uvalde school”
I want to know why these doors were the first line of defense!
Why didn’t they have the totally effective “GUN FREE ZONE” signs that have stopped all the other school shootings?
Our school had the plates also.
Security cameras has pretty much ended sneaking around to commit school pranks. They always knew who did it in the old days, but now they can prove it.
In my old old days they had actual punishment,
based on preponderance of evidence.
In most Asian countries, students have to clean their own schools, which is why they don’t vandalize and graffiti them.
Between that and public caning, I think a lot of issues would dissipate pdq.
The electronic locks used in the buildings I’m familiar with are NOT connected to the internet. The only way to hack them is via physical attack, just like physical locks.
Yes, there is “something” wrong and it is that very few “men” have the balls to go into a room where there is a maniac spewing lots and lots of hot lead into the air and who has already killed lots of people who are laying dead and wounded on the floor around him.
What’s wrong is schools, like our government, and many woke corps, hire people based on gender, sexual preference or feelings, skin color, etc;.......not the size of their balls.
Out of every 100 LEO’s in the U.S., my bet is about 5 have the balls to go into a room where hot lead is flying and bodies are many. Uvalde finally had one officer show up who did (have the balls to go into a room with lead flying).
Until schools start looking for resumes of men who have demonstrated, lead flying, combat experience nothing will change.
So they can be busted open and shorted or hotwired? Too easy.
A keyed deadbolt requires more dexterity and takes longer to defeat. Also cheaper and requires less maintenance than electronic locks. 14 bucks at Home Depot, less when you buy in bulk. We bought a set of eight (deadbolts and knobs) and did all our exterior doors and they all open with the same key.
“Double Cylinder Deadbolts have a keyed cylinder on both sides. This is a good option for doors with glass or windows since an intruder can’t break into the door even if the glass/window is broken.”
No, they cannot be busted open and shorted or hotwired!
The reader is just a dumb device that sends the serial number of the card that it reads to the controller located in a locked room inside the building. That controller is what actually makes the decision to unlock the door.
Tampering with the reader isn’t going to make it unlock the door.
Only presenting a card with a valid serial number will do that.
And in the places I worked, they had security cameras pointed right at the readers, so if someone did try to tamper with one (I believe they have tamper alarm outputs on them), it would most definitely be noticed.
And it’s much easier to deactivate a card when an employee leaves than to change the locks.
And it’s difficult, though not impossible, to clone a card. Certainly harder than getting a key copied.
I was on a schoolboard in the early 2000’s. It was a small school and we had to replace all the door hardware just for this reason. It was not cheap, but it was not our decision, it was mandatory. Must have just been a state thing not federal.
That would function on exterior doors. But most electronics can be defeated with electronics.
I would still prefer classrooms to have a keyed deadbolt on a steel framed door that the teacher can lock from inside in an emergency, while the kids scamper out the windows.
The buildings I worked in, most of the doors on the keycard system were exterior doors.
Some interior doors for secure areas were also on it. I know that the secure space I worked in, if the door didn’t shut all the way (sometimes happened) security would come up and check on it.
There are specialty security keys with blanks that are not available on the open market (locksmiths and hardware stores) which limits the opportunities for making illicit copies. They are also have serial numbers so you can keep records of who is supposed to have which key and thus can do oversight checks.
Still doesn’t do away with the need to rekey every lock when a key turns up missing.
Also, the electronic systems log every access to the door, and can deny access if done outside normal hours.
Not sure logging access is useful in for preventing/reducing school shooting body counts.
A keyed deadbolt under the control of the teacher for denying or delaying access to a murderer is simple, cheap and easy. Teachers would be personally motivated to control access to their key, since their life is also on the line.
Also, they do custom cylinder core builds with up to 12 user rekeyable doodads (can’t remember the industry lingo) that are done with a master re-key tool.
All of which are cheaper with lower maintenance costs than electronic systems. The main problem with an electronic system is that it’s not under the control of the teacher.
A teacher should have the option for a keyed deadbolt and gun under his/her control. Not the administrative doofus in the office.
To whom did the teacher report the broken lock?
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