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Don’t overlook small details

By Staff | Apr 26, 2018

Safety against violent intruders has become a major concern in planning construction of new schools and renovation of existing ones. That can mean expensive provisions such as “mantrap” entrances and metal detectors.

Let us not overlook the little things.

A commission investigating the attack on a Florida high school earlier this year, in which 17 people died, has released a preliminary report. One of the failures noted is that doors in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School could not be locked from the inside. Teachers attempting to “lock down” students for safety had to step out into the hall, perhaps into the line of fire, and use keys to secure the doors.

In addition, the commission found, classroom doors had windows through which a gunman could have fired.

School officials in our area, take note. Clearly, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was not ready for an armed intruder.

Our schools need to be.

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