I teach in Connecticut, in another small rural district. We used to have doors that only locked on the outside, so during intruder drills we actually had to open our doors, go out in the hallway, and then lock them. Not a very effective way of protecting students. Eventually the locks were replaced so that we never had to open the door to lock it. My school was built in the 50s during saner times. No one anticipated that schools would have to become fortresses. I am surprised that the front door to her school is not locked. After Columbine I thought that was standard procedure. My pet peeve is the teachers who wedge open side doors so they don’t have to keep taking out their keys when going in and out of the building. I would hire a locksmith for your daughter as a holiday gift. School maintenance takes forever: 2 years to fix a leaky faucet in my classroom.
Our large school system – Montgomery County, MD – has one or two locksmiths for the whole school district. Getting locks changed or new keys made takes a long time.
I am at school today, checking to make sure the key to my classroom door is working and placed somewhere so a substitute teacher could find it quickly. I am also posting my class attendance sheet in the corner of the room that is our “safe” place in case the unthinkable happens and I need to know quickly which children are not in my room. I am numb. I need to teach tomorrow, but I can’t seem to get much else done.
I teach in an urban district in Connecticut. I have those same locks described in the post; I have to open the door and lock it from the outside. What if I couldn’t accomplish this in time? I worry about how I could protect my students.